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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

What happened when Mikel Arteta last took charge at the Etihad Stadium ahead of Arsenal return

It's Manchester City vs Arsenal and Pep Guardiola vs Mikel Arteta on Wednesday night.

This is the rearranged Premier League fixture which was originally slated to take place on March 1st, but City were in Carabao Cup final action once again as they beat Aston Villa 2-1 at Wembley.

As a result, Arteta's return to the Etihad Stadium has been delayed by 10 days.

Mikel Arteta on his knowledge of Manchester City

Manchester was were the Spaniard had been ever since leaving Arsenal after retiring from professional football at the end of the 2015/2016 season and there's hope he will have learnt a great deal from his compatriot.

Appointing Arteta was no doubt a big risk from the north London outfit, but it's also a move that comes with a great deal of intruige.

The 37-year-old had only been an assistant head coach, so giving the job to someone with zero experience as the main man in the dugout could backfire or lead to great success in the future.

With that said, Arteta has managed a first-team game at the Etihad Stadium  before.

And it came in the biggest club competition in the world, the Champions League - a place where the Gunners are hoping to be back very soon following a three-season absence.

Last season with Guardiola serving a one-game touchline ban, Arteta took charge of the City side against Lyon in front of a subdued Etihad Stadium crowd with an attendance of 40,111 - more than 10,000 down on their Premier League average.

However, things didn't go to plan for Arteta.

City were shocked 2-1 by the Ligue 1 outfit with Tanguy Ndombele - now of Tottenham Hotspur - putting the whole of Europe on notice as Maxwel Cornet and Nabil Fekir got on the scoresheet.

Interestingly when Guardiola returned the dugout, City remained unbeaten in their final five games of the group phase.

Speaking after the game, Arteta put the defeat down to a slow start rather than the absence of Guardiola.

"The reality is Pep was not here and we lost the game," he said. "If Pep had been on the touchline I couldn't tell you whether we would have won 5-0 or lost 3-0.

"We started slow and we were not consistent in the way we were trying to play. We lost many duels and at this level you pay the price for that. At this level it is not good enough."

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