FootyChatter.com

By IAN LADYMAN, FOOTBALL EDITOR Published: 23: 00 AEDT, 20 March 2026 | Updated: 00: 14 AEDT, 21 March 2026 12 View comments In the minds of Thomas Tuchel’s England coaching circle, there exists a prototype Premier League football team and its name is Arsenal. Tuchel and his lieutenants hope to replicate some of what they see at this summer’s World Cup. ‘They can do everything, ’ a source tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘They can go through a team or round a team or over a team. ‘They are brilliantly coached and disciplined. Every player understands his role and they know how to win. ‘Arsenal have found a level and a way that others haven’t. ’ Across the Premier League, admiration for what Arsenal and their coach Mikel Arteta do runs deep. In fact, Arsenal’s methods and evolving style is undoubtedly appreciated more among coaching circles than it is by a footballing public that has taken to blaming the Premier League leaders for a change in the way football has been played this season. ‘I have always admired Mikel’s capacity to think of new ways to make progress, ’ says one top-flight manager. ‘Everyone talks about Pep (Guardiola) and that’s fair enough. Pep did things that made us all sit up and notice. Former colleagues Pep Guardiola (left) and Mikel Arteta will reunite at the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, with Arteta's Arsenal nine points clear at the top of the Premier League 'Everyone talks about Pep (Guardiola) and that’s fair enough. .. but Mikel is solving puzzles in new ways, ' says one fellow top-flight manager ‘But there is so much of that about Mikel now. Particularly in the way he solves puzzles in new ways. There is a real similarity there. ‘I would rather face Manchester City than Arsenal now. There is a relentlessness about Arsenal that can drive you mad. ’ Arteta and his old friend and mentor Guardiola have known each other since overlapping at Barcelona as players. Indeed when the Arsenal manager debuted as a 17-year-old for the Catalan club at half-time of a pre-season friendly a quarter of a century ago, it was club captain Guardiola he replaced. Now, as Arsenal and City prepare to face off in Sunday's Carabao Cup final at Wembley, Arteta is finally threatening to take Guardiola’s place at the very summit of the game in this country. Arsenal lead City by nine points at the top of the Premier League as they seek to win it for the first time since 2004 and while Arteta guided his team serenely past Bayer Leverkusen and into the quarter-finals of the Champions League this week, Guardiola walked off the field at the Etihad Stadium after defeat by Real Madrid looking a little like a bloke who had just been blown over by a hurricane. It is almost six-and-a-half seasons since Arsenal took Arteta from City, where he had been Guardiola’s assistant. It was a bitter affair, Arteta packing up his belongings in the south Manchester suburb of Didsbury in the middle of the night as City fumed over what they were convinced had been an illegal approach. Arteta arrived in north London talking Guardiola’s language. At his opening press conference, on a cold and wet Friday night just before Christmas 2019, he spoke of a need to change the culture and attitude of a failing football club. When that took a little longer than he had hoped, he moved to import some of what City had, buying left back Oleksandr Zinchenko and striker Gabriel Jesus from his old club as much for their personality as for their football in the summer of 2022. It has been a slow and gradual burn for Arteta. Apart from an FA Cup lifted with the team he inherited from Unai Emery in August 2020, the 43-year-old has not won anything. Three consecutive second-placed league finishes – twice to Guardiola’s City and last season to Liverpool – have spoken of progress but also at times hinted at a ceiling reached. Arteta's only trophy at Arsenal remains his FA Cup triumph in 2020 - he will be desperate to add to that collection at Wembley on Sunday In a bid to change the culture at the Emirates, Arteta signed Oleksandr Zinchenko (left) and Gabriel Jesus from his old club in the summer of 2022 To take the next step, Arteta has returned to a long-standing and deeply-held reliance and enthusiasm for one of the few things he and Guardiola never really agreed on. Asked earlier this season when he first realised that set-pieces and direct football were untapped resources in the Premier League, Arteta’s answer surprised everybody. 'Ten years ago, ’ he said with not atypical bluntness. Asked to elaborate or explain, he added: ‘Ten years ago I said it's a massive thing and I started to have a vision to try to implement the method and try to be surrounded by the best people to deliver it. ’ A decade ago Arteta was just about to finish his last season as a player, at Arsenal. Guardiola was just about to succeed Manuel Pellegrini as manager at City. Interestingly, on his arrival in Manchester, Guardiola let it be known he was not overly bothered about set-piece football. The great Catalan, as we know, had other ways he wished the game to be played. Arteta joined Guardiola at City from the start but was some way down the coaching pecking order. He didn’t become assistant manager for another two years. A season later – in the summer of 2019 and at Arteta’s behest – City hired set-piece coach Nicolas Jover from Brentford. ‘Mikel had seen what Nicolas had done working at Brentford and just as importantly how players had bought into it, ’ reveals a source close to that move. ‘To Mikel, it always seemed obvious to make this a central part of the game. ’ A key difference between Arteta's Arsenal and Guardiola's Man City is the former's ability to score from set-pieces Arteta with set-piece specialist Nicolas Jover, whom he encouraged City to hire then took with him to north London Arteta often likes to play down the notion of a direct style at Arsenal. Firstly, he feels it is by its very inference disrespectful of the technical ability of his players. Secondly, he knows that the more it is talked about, the more it is likely to be copied and mimicked. But Jover – now with him at Arsenal – gets a bonus every time a goal is scored from a set-piece so the importance and the motivation to succeed at the art is clear. ‘Football in the Premier League and across Europe has changed dramatically, ’ adds Daily Mail Sport’s FA source. ‘Standards of coaching are now so high that the middle third of the field has become incredibly hard to penetrate, even by the exceptional teams such as Pep’s City and Liverpool. ‘Arsenal and Mikel worked out the answer before anybody else. Stop banging your head against the brick wall and go over the top of it instead. It’s simple but also very clever and quite brave at the same time. ‘To be an outlier – to be the one doing it a different way – is not always easy. If you go that way, you really have to win. ’ For good or for bad, we will see some of this play out in England colours in America this summer. Tuchel has been saying for more than a year that corners will be vital to chances of success at the World Cup. A long tournament played in hot conditions at the end of a long European season will be won 'by big moments as much as big performances', Tuchel’s assistant Anthony Barry has said. Again, it’s the modern Arsenal creed almost to the letter and nobody who knew Arteta at City is remotely surprised. Your browser does not support iframes. During his three-and-a-half seasons in Manchester, the Spaniard was an important go-between when it came to Guardiola and his players. He could be more diplomatic and less emotional. But his time there amounted to much more than that. Staff in all football departments – analysis, scouting, data – grew used to his visits, often unannounced, and his questions and his observations as he grew to know how a big football club worked from the ground up. He was – according to one former City source – an 'obsessive person’ who had a seemingly endless desire to grow. At the Etihad, there has only been one defining force for the last 10 years. It has been Guardiola’s club. The big football decisions were, by and large, always his. As Arteta made his own way at Arsenal, some similarities were clear from the start, not least a willingness to evolve and change and, if necessary, pivot dramatically. Arteta is undoubtedly a different football thinker now from the one who once said he was not happy unless a football was being passed forwards and who used to urge David Moyes, when playing for him at Everton, to play less counter-attack football and to try and keep the ball longer. With this in mind, the Arsenal we see now is different to the one we watched two years ago. Just as Guardiola instructed his players in the art of the tactical foul – his midfielder Rodri has admitted it – so Arteta has endeavoured to slow big matches down. At Brighton recently, for example, Arsenal took more than 30 minutes out of the game just by taking time over their restarts. The churn of players at the Emirates has been instructive too. Timing is everything when letting a player go. Just as Guardiola showed no emotion in selling Raheem Sterling to Chelsea when nobody really saw a career downturn coming, so Arteta moved out loyal and important servants such as Kieran Tierney – so crucial to him in the difficult early months – Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsdale and indeed Zinchenko once their usefulness had dried up. Arteta showed a ruthlessness in moving out loyal servants such as Kieran Tierney (pictured), so crucial to him in his difficult early months at the Emirates Your browser does not support iframes. Some of Arteta’s thoughts and training devices have been mocked over the years. If he cares he doesn’t show it. The psychology of football interests him more than it ever has Guardiola. His players, for example, are instructed to walk slowly into position ahead of attacking set-pieces so as to build tension in the minds of the opposition. The truth is that three runners-up finishes in the Premier League were threatening to leave Arsenal as eternal bridesmaids and Arteta looking for fresh employment. The coach of a team still in the running to win four trophies this season had to do something. As it stands, the statistics show that both City and Arsenal are making fewer short passes this season. They are both tackling more and pressing the ball more effectively than they were a year ago. However, Arsenal have scored almost 40 per cent of their goals from set-pieces, their highest percentage under Arteta, while City’s stats – sitting at almost 17 per cent - are heading in the opposite direction. Guardiola has admitted recently that he pays more attention to the subject than ever before. For perhaps the first and only time, the greatest coach of our generation may stand accused of arriving at a conclusion rather too late. In the press conference room at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night, Guardiola was expressive and running hot on emotion. The psychology of football interests Arteta more than it ever has Guardiola. His players are instructed to walk slowly into position ahead of attacking set-pieces so as to build tension Declan Rice's delivery has been vital to Arsenal's potency at dead-ball situations. Now even Guardiola admits he is paying more attention to set-pieces than ever before Asked for the umpteenth time for his plans for the future, he threw his arms in the air. ‘You guys want to fire me? ’ he responded, with exasperation that was only half in jest. This is not atypical. Much of what Guardiola offers publicly seems to serve as a window into his soul. With Arteta, it’s different. At times it can be like looking at frosted glass. When he sat for that first briefing at the Emirates back at Christmas 2019, the Arsenal manager was frank and clear. ‘Everybody has to feel privileged to be here and the players will have to accept a different way of things, ’ said Arteta from his seat at a large oak table. ‘We have to build a culture. If players like Bernardo Silva and David Silva at Man City don't get bullied, it's because they defend their position like animals. ‘From now on, that must be us. ’ As he delivered that last short sentence, Arteta delivered his right fist hard into the middle of his left palm. He has rarely been as verbose since. He is not box office but some of those who know what it takes to win at Arsenal are sure that some of the criticism aimed at Arteta’s team will be used in a time-honoured way. Arsenal have, after all, been accused of killing modern football this season. ‘We got hammered by everyone in the 1990s for the “1-0 to the Arsenal” thing and I am sure Mikel and the players are using criticism the same way we used that, ’ former Arsenal full back Lee Dixon tells the Daily Mail's Whistleblowers podcast. ‘I hope they feel what we felt. We didn’t give a monkey's about the outside noise. It was about winning. ‘Mikel is so switched on that I am sure he will be getting that message across. ‘George Graham, our manager, would stand before training and ask if we had seen the newspapers. We would say we had and he would just say, “F*** ‘em”. 'We got hammered by everyone in the 1990s for the "1-0 to the Arsenal" thing, ' says Lee Dixon (third from left). 'We didn't give a monkey's. .. I hope Mikel and the players feel what we felt' ‘Then he would give us some kind of Churchillian speech about how everybody wanted to bring us down and that the only people who we needed to care about were each other. ‘It’s the mentality that matters now at Arsenal. With the low standard of the Premier League this season, that’s the least of their worries. There isn’t enough quality to hunt them down and I am sure Mikel knows it. ‘They have got better each season and to do that they have had to change. They have all the tools but can they get over the line? That’s the only question now. ‘And how Mikel handles his own intensity is also important. Sometimes his intensity comes over to the players (negatively) but he’s been better this season. ’ Arsenal will face City twice before the season’s end. At Wembley this weekend and at the Etihad in the Premier League in a month’s time. It feels a little like Guardiola has two big punches left. The opponent will be one he recognises and understands, but perhaps only in part.

Share what you think

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mail Online.

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your Mail Online comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to Mail Online as usual.   Do you want to automatically post your Mail Online comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to Mail Online as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on Mail Online. To do this we will link your Mail Online account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.