Arteta versus Guardiola as two old colleagues renew acquaintances

Two old colleagues renew acquaintances again on Saturday when Mikel Arteta takes his Arsenal side to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City and former mentor Pep Guardiola.

It has been a distinctly ordinary start to the campaign for the hosts, who go into the weekend five points and 10 places behind their visitors in the embryonic Premier League table.

A match filled with plenty of story lines, Arteta versus Guardiola, teacher playing against student and similar philosophies will make for a fantastic game.

City have won three of our five games in all competitions before the international break, suffering a defeat against Leicester City and drawing with Leeds United in the last match before domestic action paused.

Arsenal lost just once in their opening six games, a 3-1 defeat to Liverpool in the Premier League. They come into this contest sitting in the fourth position in the table.

A great game between the traditional ‘top 6’ sides should make for a great one.

Kevin De Bruyne will miss the game with Arsenal after picking up a knock with Belgium against England.

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Sergio Aguero (knee) is back in training but is questionable for this game.

Raheem Sterling will face a late fitness test per City.

Oleksandr Zinchenko also remains side-lined and Gabriel Jesus (muscular) will also miss the game as he recovers from a muscle injury.

City will welcome back Joao Cancelo from the foot problem that kept him out of our opening games and Bernardo, both of whom played for Portugal last week.

Arsenal will be without Gabriel Martinelli and Calum Chambers (both knee), Pablo Mari (ankle) and Shkodran Mustafi (hamstring).