Mikel Arteta has insisted that Arsenal’s rising rivalry with Manchester Metropolis is not going to influence his friendship with Pep Guardiola.
Arsenal held Manchester Metropolis to a 2-2 draw on the Etihad final weekend in a fiery contest that noticed clashes between the 2 units of gamers at full-time.
Arteta was concerned in a heated change with Erling Haaland on the last whistle, whereas the latter threw the ball within the course of Gabriel after Metropolis’s late equaliser.
The 2 groups have competed immediately for the Premier League title throughout the final two seasons and look properly positioned to battle it out as soon as once more in 2024/25. Nevertheless, Arteta has insisted the budding rivalry is not going to change his relationship with Guardiola, who he labored alongside as a part of the Manchester Metropolis teaching employees earlier than taking the senior position at Arsenal.
Arteta outlined his ‘love’ and ‘respect’ for Guardiola and stated he can separate their sporting contests and off-the-pitch friendship.
“I like him, I respect him, I love him and his workforce and all the pieces that he does. That is sport and a private relationship,” Arteta stated at his pre-match press convention forward of going through Leicester this weekend.
“If my relationship needs to be broken as a result of one attracts and the opposite one wins after we play in opposition to one another, the quantity of occasions that we have now misplaced, then I wouldn’t speak to him anymore.
“It’s sport and it’ll by no means get in the best way of a private relationship for positive.”
Arteta happy with Arsenal in Odegaard absence
Arsenal will once more be with out Martin Odegaard this weekend, although Arteta has been impressed with how his facet have coped within the captain’s absence. The North Londoners have secured outcomes away at Tottenham, Atalanta and Manchester Metropolis in successive video games.
“For those who put them in that situation earlier than the beginning of the season, with the calendar we have now, the fixtures we had and the three away video games and the way we acquired out of that, I’d be very, very happy I believe.
“It’s not solely Martin, he is without doubt one of the gamers who has extra influence within the workforce in some ways however there have been many others as properly.
“The workforce has coped extraordinarily properly as a result of we have now an distinctive group, a whole lot of gamers are taking a unique position within the management, of their position within the workforce and so they embrace that problem and I’m actually completely satisfied for that.”
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