Manchester City manager’s former assistant has now risen to become a fierce rival
Pep Guardiola says there are no tensions with former assistant Mikel Arteta despite both men now fierce rivals at the top of the Premier League.
Guardiola and Arteta will face each other in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, with a lot on the line for both sides. City are also pushing to deny the Gunners a first title win since 2004 and both teams have competed for the title in three of the last four seasons, City coming out on top in the previous two.
Matches between the two clubs have also seen intense rivalry and some bad blood. But Guardiola won’t entertain talk of any personal rift between him and his former assistant.
“No, I don’t have time to go to London, and I think he hasn’t got time to come to Manchester,” Guardiola said when asked if he would have dinner with Arteta. “The relationship is completely different to when we were here five or six hours a day.
“All the managers have a lot of business to do, but if you want to try with your question to create some conflict with Mikel or myself or Arsenal, I am old enough to [see you trying to] do that.”
The 2026 #CarabaoCupFinal is almost here…@Arsenal 🆚 @ManCity – let’s go! 👊#EFL | #CarabaoCup pic.twitter.com/T7rSJl0eRa
— Carabao Cup (@Carabao_Cup) March 20, 2026
Guardiola was also asked his opinion on whether Arsenal were making use of “dark arts” – clever or “dirty” tricks to win a football match.
“You say that? Go to London, to the conference with Mikel,” City’s manager said. “You have time to go. Go there and ask him about that. Because if someone does this kind of thing there are officials to deal with this.
“The manager can do whatever he wants, I can do whatever I want. I don’t know if it’s dark arts on one team or the other team.
“Look what happens around the world, we are in an incredible chaos and nobody moves one finger. Everything is behind the scenes. The world is going to collapse and still we are here talking about either dark arts of one team or another team. There are more important things than that.”
Guardiola also thinks it is difficult to judge whether the result of Sunday’s final can have an impact on the title race. Arsenal are nine points clear with only seven games left but City have a game in hand and will still play Arsenal at the Emirates in April.
“I don’t know,” Guardiola said when asked if City winning the final could give them an advantage in the title race. “Winning helps just for the fact that winning helps [confidence]. But we can win on Sunday and then be bad in the league.”
