Ever since Mikel Arteta resigned as Pep Guardiola’s assistant to become Arsenal head coach, his critics have liked to accuse him of mimicking the Manchester City boss.
There is practically no elite coach who has not been influenced by Guardiola in some way, but Arteta has faced snide suggestions that he is a copycat and not his own man.
“I never tried to copy and paste,” said Arteta in January 2023 in response to suggestions that he was borrowing too closely from Guardiola’s blueprint.
In Sunday’s pulsating 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium, however, Arsenal frustrated City with an approach that could scarcely have been further from the Guardiola ideal of football.
In the second half, after Leandro Trossard’s red card, Arteta's side barely had a touch outside their own penalty box, as the visitors doggedly defended their lead with all 10 players behind the ball.
In fact, Arteta’s approach was far more reminiscent of Guardiola’s historic rival Jose Mourinho, whose football is often characterised as the antithesis of the Catalan’s.
Mourinho would have admired everything about the way Arsenal played in the first half after falling behind to Erling Haaland’s 100th City goal, Arteta’s side equalising with a magnificent Riccardo Calafiori strike after some smart opportunism and taking the lead through Gabriel Magalhaes’ latest header from a corner.
And Mourinho would have surely approved of Arteta’s response to Trossard’s soft dismissal in first-half stoppage time for kicking the ball away, introducing Ben White for Bukayo Saka and effectively turning the game into a training exercise of City attack against Arsenal defence.
It was reminiscent of Mourinho’s great battles with Guardiola down the years, including Inter Milan’s infamous rearguard with 10 men against the Catalan’s iconic Barcelona side in the Champions League semi-final second leg in 2010. Arteta even sounded a little like Mourinho afterwards in his refusal to discuss Trossard’s dismissal.
“I prefer not to comment,” he said. “I’ve seen it and it’s that obvious so I’ll leave it to you guys.”
There remain strong through lines between the approaches of Guardiola and Arteta, and the similarities between the two Spanish coaches even extend to the way they dress on the touchline (black shoes, grey trousers, black sweater).
But Sunday’s clash underlined that Arteta is increasingly willing to take a different approach to his mentor in challenging for the title. Arsenal’s willingness to frustrate City and embrace the dark arts really was remarkable.
Jurrien Timber and Kai Havertz became the first outfield Premier League players on record to fail to complete a single pass to a team-mate - an incredible statistic which underlined the extent to which Arsenal won their point with their work off the ball.
They defended brilliantly, largely restricting City’s defenders to potshots from outside the box, and they were smart in frustrating the champions.
After 65 minutes, goalkeeper David Raya went down requesting treatment, prompting furious cries from City’s players and supporters, and a mysterious booking for Arsenal’s teenage substitute Myles Lewis-Skelly, apparently for something he said.
Raya going down allowed his team-mates a drinks break, and a brief reprieve from City’s relentless siege of his penalty box.
“There was only one team that came to play football,” said City’s Bernardo Silva. “The other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee, unfortunately.”
Arteta has had to teach his players these dark arts, revealing in February that he had shown his squad clips and worked on specific scenarios in training after their 1-0 defeat by Porto in the Champions League - after which Declan Rice admitted they had to be savvier.
“There are clubs that have that in their DNA,” the manager said at the time. “It is not something that you would directly link with Arsenal, that’s for sure, but it is something that has to be developed.”
This development of Arsenal into a cannier, steelier team has been hugely impressive and they are completely unrecognisable from the side that collapsed to a 3-0 defeat at Tottenham in May 2022 after Rob Holding was sent off late in the first half.
Arsenal’s willingness to frustrate City and embrace the dark arts really was remarkable... it nearly paid off spectacularly
Ultimately, Arsenal succumbed to the latest of sucker-punches when substitute John Stones bundled home in the 98th minute to deny them a first win at the Etihad since 2015 and an enormous psychological boost in their latest attempt to dethrone City as champions. Arteta nonetheless was “proud” of his players, even if he said he could not "be happy" with the result.
“What I can tell you is 99 out of 100 times if you play 56 minutes against this team with 10 men, you’re going to lose and you’re going to lose by a lot of goals,” he said. “I’m so proud of them. It’s unbelievable how we react.”
Such are the remarkable standards set by City and the fine margins at this level, Stones’ goal could yet be decisive in the title race.
But Arteta’s willingness to channel his inner Mourinho very nearly paid off spectacularly, and further underlined the steeliness and adaptability of his Arsenal side, which may prove crucial if they are to finally finish above City.
After all, Guardiola is the master for a reason and there is surely no beating him at his own game. Arteta, though, is building an altogether different kind of team, based on his own ideals.
