26 January 2023 , 22:30
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Mikel Arteta has stepped out of Pep Guardiola's shadow but says his mentor will always be celebrated as a pioneer who changed the face of football.
Like Guardiola's predecessor as Barcelona coach, Johan Cruyff, the Arsenal manager regards the Manchester City boss as a visionary who unfurled a new blueprint for others to follow.
And now a new generation of Pep pups – notably Xavi, Vincent Kompany and Arteta himself – are carrying the torch for a progressive, expansive approach which shames the anti-football or Rubik's cube complexity of dinosaurs and grifters.
As he prepared to take the Gunners to Guardiola's Etihad fiefdom in the FA Cup fourth round on Friday, Arteta laid bare his debt to the mastermind behind City's four Premier League titles in the last five years.
Arsenal finished a distant 24 points behind Pep's champions last season, but in a staggering upturn in fortunes they have reached the halfway turn five points clear.
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Asked how he has coped with the comparisons between sorcerer and apprentice, Arteta shrugged: “Very simple. I feel gratitude, first of all because he inspired me as a player, then he inspired me and gave me the opportunity as a coach.
“For what people think of me, I accept it - because I probably wouldn’t have had the career I had as a player, the understanding of the game or the purpose I had as a player, if he hadn’t been in that time at Barcelona.
Arsenal and Man City are going head-to-head for the signing of Noah Okafor (Getty Images)“And I wouldn’t be sitting here with that willingness and love for coaching if he hadn’t trusted in my love of the game and given me the opportunity.
“As a player, I was looking at him and just wanted to achieve what he was doing. I loved the way he played and the way he was transmitting and understanding what was happening on the pitch. He was an inspiration since I was 18 years old.
“Did he expect us to be this close this quickly? I don’t know - that’s a question for him. It’s been quite a big transformation – the team we had in the beginning to the team we have right now, it’s night and day - and I’m very grateful to everybody who's been on that journey because obviously they all helped and contributed to where we are today.
“But I think the influence that Pep had on football in the last 20 years is just incredibly powerful. He changed the game like Johan (Cruyff) did in the past, he did it like other managers who will go down in history.
“What inspired me was his way of thinking, his way of transmitting his beliefs, the way he understood the game, the passion he had about the game.
“Then, when you have a personal relationship with somebody – and you have that chemistry – that takes it to a different level, and that’s what happened in my case, especially when we worked together (at City).
“So we have learned a lot from him, we have been inspired by a lot of things he’s done and then everyone has to build his own career and his own pathway.
“And that career is not for six months or a year or two years. Let’s see and let everybody develop in the way they should.”
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New signings Jakub Kiwior and Leandro Trossard are likely to feature at the Etihad in a plum tie which, Arteta insists, will have no bearing on the title race but will tell Arsenal “a lot about where we are” in terms of their squad depth.
Polish defender Kiwior, who signed for £21 million from Spezia earlier this week, is expected to make his debut, while Trossard – who supplied an impressive cameo from the bench against Manchester United last Sunday – looks set to start.
Arteta said of Kiwior: “He gives us more cover - we’ve been with three central defenders for the first part of the season, which is very short, and we’ve been lucky with injuries.”