In a week in which the Champions League is the main protagonist and after the victory of Bayern Munich and Milan against PSG and Tottenham respectively, today England will put aside the European competition to witness a true duel of titans. Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City meet at the Emirates Stadium in the fight for the leadership of the Premier League occupied by the London team.

It will be the first time that both teams meet this season, since the match should have been played on October 19, but it was postponed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The return match will be played on April 26, since the same order of matches between the first and second rounds is not reproduced in the English competition.

Arsenal, leader of the Premier League with a three-point advantage over Manchester City, comes after two games without victory (a 1-1 draw against Brentford and a 1-0 defeat against Everton). The ‘citizens’, for their part, have accumulated a defeat —1-0 against Tottenham— and a victory —3-1 against Aston Villa— in their last two games, and next week they will face RB Leipzig in the round of 16 final of the Champions League.

There will also be an attractive matchup between Norwegians. Odegaard and Haaland, who share a selection, will be on different sides tonight. The Manchester City player suffered a knock during Sunday’s match against Aston Villa and was replaced at half-time by Julián Álvarez. Everything indicates that the top scorer in the Premier (25 goals) is recovered, but Guardiola has said that he will not take risks if there are doubts.

In addition to the sporting appeal, the duel will have an emotional component. Both coaches shared the bench at Manchester City as first and second coach. After hanging up his boots, the Basque received a call from Guardiola to be his assistant at the head of the Mancunian team. Before making the jump to the benches to replace Unai Emery as coach of the London team, Arteta was a player for the ‘Gunners’ for five seasons under the orders of Arsène Wenger.

This Tuesday, in the press conference prior to the game, Guardiola declared that “it is the best Arsenal I have faced since I arrived in England and currently the best team in the Premier”. In that same appearance, the man from Santpedor apologized to Steven Gerrard for a “stupid and unnecessary” comment that the Catalan coach made when he came out in defense of the club for the investigation that the Premier has opened against City.

Now the disciple is looking to wrest the title from the master, and achieve what Wenger last achieved in 2004: winning the Premier League with Arsenal.