On Sunday, August 6, Manchester City and Arsenal will open the English season with a match for the national Super Cup. The last time this happened was nine years ago. Arsenal then defeated City 3-0. However, with the arrival of Pep Guardiola, the “citizens” almost did not lose to the “gunners”. One of the rare defeats occurred in 2020, when Arsenal was already managed by Josep’s former assistant Mikel Arteta. But in general, the Gunners have dismal statistics of meetings with City. Will Arteta be able to beat the professor again? Meanwhile, he remembers the first victory.
Arteta finished his career in the summer of 2016 and immediately joined Manchester City along with Guardiola. The new coach of the “citizens” called the compatriot to his headquarters. For three years, Arteta was in constant contact with Pep, absorbing all the information from the boss. But Mikel himself helped Guardiola significantly: for example, he held individual conversations with the players or replaced the main one in training. Pep liked Arteta, but initially understood that City were not his favorite club. The former Arsenal player dreamed of managing the Gunners.
“Arteta is an Arsenal fan, he was the captain there. He loves this club. I remember when we [«Манчестер Сити»] He scored goals, he jumped a lot, except when we got into the same team. So he just sat there. That team was Arsenal,” Guardiola noted in 2023. As a result, in December 2019, Mikel managed the Londoners, launching Arsenal’s renaissance. It should be noted that in the last game before Arteta’s appointment, the Gunners lost devastatingly at home to City – 0:3.
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Despite the fact that under the leadership of Mikel Arsenal won the FA Cup and the Super Cup, and the club returned to the top positions in the league, City remain their most difficult opponent. Guardiola and Arteta played nine full-time games in which City had eight wins! Arsenal proved to be the strongest once, in the 2019/20 FA Cup semi-finals. And then they beat Chelsea in the final, giving Arteta his first title as head coach.
Mikel Arteta with the FA Cup
Photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images
Arsenal finished the 2019/2020 Premier League season in eighth place. Disappointing result. The Cup was still the last hope for the European competition. Arteta had just started building a team, removing unnecessary players from the base, trying to implement his own system. Of course, this was fraught with difficulties. Not all of the players met Arteta’s standards, and some didn’t quite reach Arsenal’s level at all. There were also capricious leaders, like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. But even with such problems, Arsenal took the trophy.
Ahead of the semi-final against City, it is unlikely that many will bet on the Gunners. However, already in the 19th minute, Arsenal opened the scoring. Nicolás Pepe crossed from the right flank and Aubameyang closed the serve, reaching the ball with his foot in the fall. The nature of the party became even more radical. City relentlessly attacked and pounded on goal, while Arsenal settled into positional defense and got away on rare counter-attacks. And the tactic worked! The Gunners not only failed to concede, but also scored the second! In the 71st minute, Aubameyang broke away from City’s defense, went one-on-one with Ederson, and dazzled him.
Mikel Arteta and Josep Guardiola
Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images
Arsenal defeated City in their second head-to-head match since Arteta’s appointment. Interestingly, a month earlier, the teams met in the Premier League, and City eliminated the Londoners with a score of 3:0. Arteta took into account the errors, also in that match at the beginning of the second half, the defender David Luiz was eliminated. Undoubtedly, “Arsenal” went along with luck. But Arteta was quite mature in the meeting with the teacher, moving away from his dogmas, without fear of playing defensively.
After the match, Guardiola pointed out that City’s second half was more aggressive than the first. And it was the lack of desire during the 90 minutes that caused the defeat: “You can lose, but I’m upset with how we played in the first half. That’s why we lost. If we played like in the second half, aggressively and wanting to win, maybe everything would be different. The City players can do a lot, but we didn’t show it in the first half, we weren’t prepared.”
In turn, Arteta was happy. A few days after the victory over City, Arsenal also beat Liverpool. Mikel pointed this out in his post-match commentary: “We are very happy with what has happened in the last four or five days. Beating perhaps the two best teams in Europe is the most rewarding thing to do. You have to give the players credit for what they do, for their performance. For what level of struggle do they show ”.
Interestingly, by winning the Chelsea Cup final, Arteta became the first person in Arsenal history to win the title as both a player and a manager. Adding to the freshness of the situation is the fact that the Gunners did it in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, boosting fan morale.
Josep Guardiola with the Premier League Cup
Photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images
However, after June 2020, Arsenal were never able to beat City again. Eight games – eight losses. The most offensive is in April 2023. Arsenal still had a chance to compete for Premier League gold in the event of a win over City. But Guardiola’s team defeated the Londoners in their native Etihad with a score of 4:1, removing almost all doubts about the fate of the gold. City eventually took the title, but Arsenal enter the new season with a stronger squad. It affects not only the invaluable experience gained in the last championship, but also the best transfers. Joining Arsenal are defender Jurrien Timber (Ajax, €40m), midfielders Kai Havertz (Chelsea, €75m) and Declan Rice (West Ham, €116.6m). solid company. Will Arteta’s newcomers help beat Guardiola for the second time and bring Arsenal a third trophy under the Spaniard?
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