Mikel Arteta is feeling a little sore lately. He now has to take his team up to Anfield, where party mode is in full swing for Liverpool — but Pep Guardiola has already told him what to do.
The bitterness of finishing second (at best) for a third straight season does seem to be grating on the Arsenal manager. He made some ludicrous remarks about Arne Slot being the beneficiary of lower standards within the division, despite the fact that Liverpool has more points at this stage of the season than Arteta could muster in either of the previous two.
And if competition at the sharp end of the Premier League has been weaker, then that fault lies squarely with Arteta. He has simply not been able to conjure up the kind of challenge routinely served up by Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp in their pomp.
Arteta watched Guardiola closely in the early days of that rivalry, working as his assistant at Man City. But he had already left by 2020, which might explain why he seems to have forgotten the words of his former mentor.
“We will greet Liverpool, when they come to our house, in an incredible way,” Guardiola explained at the time, confirming that Man City would perform a guard of honor after Klopp’s side had claimed the league title. “We are going to do it because they deserve it.”
It is believed that Arteta has at least decided to respect the tradition and give Liverpool a guard of honor too. But like in so many other areas, the gesture is a pale imitation of Guardiola.
While Liverpool has never exactly been fond of the Catalan, the utmost respect has generally existed between the two parties. Only recently, Guardiola was waxing lyrical about Klopp as by far and away the hardest adversary he has come up against.
That’s not to say the rivalry was entirely without its snideness. Indeed, Bernardo Silva made himself look foolish at the guard of honor, having seemingly not received the “incredible” memo from his manager.
(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
With a drink in each hand and a bored expression on his face, he cemented his status as Public Enemy Number One in Liverpool. But while you might expect it from petulant Portuguese playmakers, the hope is that managers might show a little more class.
Arteta will get his team to go through the motions at Anfield. But unless he actually stops to reflect on why Arsenal finds itself in the position of having to give a guard of honor, he will struggle to ever get himself on the receiving end of one.
His recent comments would be more at home in a social media echo chamber than a Premier League press conference. Blaming circumstance without looking inward is not how Liverpool and Man City once drove each other to ever greater heights.
Did Guardiola or Klopp ever simply wait for their luck to change? No, they were constantly innovating, finding ways to find that extra one per cent that could make all the difference.
In Arteta’s case, he needs to find more like an extra 20 to 25 per cent, given the gulf between Liverpool and Arsenal in the table. As a fan, you’d be alarmed to hear him say that it’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
Perhaps he can be forgiven for allowing a few cracks to show, as PSG threatens to leave him entirely empty-handed once again. But while Arteta has at least listened to Guardiola in green-lighting the guard of honor, he stands no hope of finishing above Liverpool any time soon unless he starts to show Slot’s side some more sincere respect.
