Mikel Arteta has said his friendship with Pep Guardiola will not be affected by Arsenal and Manchester City’s ongoing title rivalry.
Several City players criticised Arsenal tactics after the 2-2 draw at the Etihad last Sunday, where Arteta’s side sat deep after losing Leandro Trossard to a red card at the end of the first half.
Various players could be seen rowing with each other after the conclusion of the match between the Premier League’s top two for the previous two seasons. Arteta worked under Guardiola at City before taking the role of head coach at Arsenal in 2019.
“I love him, I respect him, I admire him and I admire his team and everything that he does,” Arteta said of Guardiola and their relationship in his Friday news conference. “This is sport. One thing is our profession, another is our personal relationship.
“If our relationship was damaged because one draws and the other one wins or the amount of times that they’ve beaten us, I would not talk to him any more. So that’s not our relationship, especially the relationship that I consider both of us have. In sport it will never get in my way, a personal relationship, that’s for sure.
“If you don’t like opinions then you shouldn’t be sitting in the position that I am. It’s quite simple. Don’t take it personally. It’s part of our job. The things that you really care about, make sure you handle them in the right way. That relationship I really care about.”
Arteta added that Jurriën Timber and Ben White should be fit for his team’s home game against Leicester City on Saturday, while summer signing Mikel Merino has returned to training.
Merino is yet to play for the club after his €37.5 million ($41.9m) move having broken his shoulder bone in his first training session.
“Tomorrow is too soon. Next week we’ll see,” Arteta said of the midfielder. “He had partial training today. He’s been working so hard. It’s looking good. It’s about the healing of the bone and how mature that is to expose him to contact basically.”
“We are trying to keep him in the cage, because he’s been pushing everyone — the physios, the doctors, everybody — and he’s ready to go, and he really wants it. I think we are comfortable now to start exposing him with contact, and he looked really good in training.”
Goalkeeper David Raya is a doubt for the Leicester game, having missed Arsenal’s midweek win over Bolton with injury.
“We have to wait 24 hours to see if he is looking good or not that good,” Arteta said. “It’s not risk, it is about a player being fit or available or not. We will make the decision tomorrow.”