Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta have offered up two very different managerial approaches with regards to the expectations placed upon their star men.
The Spanish pair spent almost three-and-a-half years together at Manchester City between 2016 and 2019 yet clearly harbour their own preferences when it comes to managing their players.
Hours after Arteta oversaw his Arsenal side's 3-2 win at Watford in the latest episode of their recent resurgence, Guardiola masterminded City's 4-1 humiliation of fierce rivals Manchester United.
However, in the build-up to their respective Premier League clashes, the two managers addressed the expectations of two of their key players in contrasting fashion.
Following his FA Cup exploits in City's 2-0 triumph over Peterborough in midweek, Guardiola's £100million Jack Grealish expressed his desire to improve his goal tally.
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The England international admitted: “I expect more, I want to get a lot more.”
However, in response to Grealish's proclamation, his manager was quick to dismiss talk of statistics, stating that there is far more to the midfielder's game than numbers.
"Maybe he's wrong. Maybe he listens too much to what people say," Guardiola declared. "It's wrong but the statistics are better and he plays quite similar to Aston Villa in terms of ball contact.
"We didn't buy him to score 45 goals. He doesn't have that quality, he has another one.
"Always we talk about the statistics – the players today play for the statistics, but this is the biggest mistake they can do.
"Statistics never existed before. It's how you play today if you perform to your maximum, to your best, help your team-mates to make the process defensively and offensively better – it's enough."
However, while Guardiola was quick to play down the importance of Grealish adding more goal contributions to his name, the City manager's former understudy exclaimed quite the opposite.
In a challenge to Arsenal midfielder Martin Odegaard, Arteta demanded the Norwegian ensure his influence count in more dangerous areas, specifically adding goals to his game.
Ahead of the Gunners clash with Watford, Arteta said of Odegaard: "He needs to play close to the opponents' box, for sure.
"He needs to create more goals, he needs to score more goals, he needs to make more runs in behind, he needs to be closer to the strikers to give them support, and he can do that.
"He needs to score more free kicks. He can still contribute more on our set pieces. His defensive work is phenomenal.
"There are areas where he can only get better, and the only way to get better is to agree on them, and then practise."
The two contrasting coaching strategies evidently paid dividends on Sunday however, as both players shone for their respective sides.
Odegaard answered Arteta's calls by opening the scoring in Arsenal's Vicarage Road triumph, while Grealish capped his return to Premier League action following injury with an impressive display against United.
As for Guardiola and Arteta, they do say it's sometimes best to agree to disagree.
