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Mikel Arteta was Pep Guardiola's most trusted adviser at Manchester City before leaving to join Arsenal... the pair still exchange WhatsApp messages and remain close as they finally prepare to go head-to-head

Expect effusiveness – and plenty of it – when two particular managers return to our screens this week. Beforehand in their media briefings and on the touchline. Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta face each other for the first time on Wednesday night. Friendly fire of back slaps and compliments.

This is the arena Arteta always wanted to challenge himself in and why, when the call from Arsenal came again last December, he really could not turn it down.

He had already rejected at least one other job but a move back to the Emirates, with something of a clean slate, was an entirely different proposition.