Pep Guardiola admits that Mikel Arteta has a major task on his hands to restore Arsenal to their former glories with the Gunners "struggling".
Arsenal's hunt for a new head coach is nearly at an end, with Arteta set to be appointed on a three-and-a-half year deal.
Arteta held talks with director Josh Kroenke, son of owner Stan, on Monday night and it is thought the Gunners director has approved the appointment of the Spaniard.
The 37-year-old is expected to be in the dugout for Manchester City's Carabao Cup quarter final against Oxford United on Wednesday night, but could take charge of Arsenal for the trip to Everton on Saturday.
Freddie Ljungberg was handed the reins on an interim basis after the sacking of Unai Emery, but the Swede has struggled to turn the club's form around, only winning once in five games.
And City boss Pep Guardiola admits the arrival of Arteta may not be enough to be an immediate fix to the current situation.
“I think Arsenal [are] always one of the best teams of the last 20 years,” said the City manager.
“When Arsene (Wenger) took over the team, he raised the club to another level and now they are struggling a little bit the last years.
“When the club takes a decision to replace the manager or buy players it’s always to rise to be better. Whether it's going to happen or not, I don’t know.
“You know my opinion about Mikel. He’s a professional human being and a person, I don’t have doubts about that.”
Arsenal managing director Vinai Venkatesham, and director of football operations, Huss Fahmy were pictured leaving Arteta’s Manchester home in the early hours of Monday morning, which reportedly left City angered by the lack of contact between the clubs.
“Mikel was honest with me," Guardiola said.
"Arsenal - we were there two days ago. They were talking with our sporting director, the CEO and didn’t say anything.
“I don’t know if the meeting was at one at night because they didn’t want to make it public, but in the end it was public.
“I think Arsenal want to do the best thing possible. Sometimes it’s not easy to handle this kind of situation. We cannot deny that all the clubs around the world make behind the scenes the first contact to try to avoid the clubs that are in charge.
“All I can say from what I’m concerned is that Mikel was clear with me and that’s all. Perhaps there is a problem with the chairmen and the CEOs - they have to talk to each other.”
