Given that he has been in charge of Arsenal for just over six years, it is easy to forget that when it comes to elite management, Mikel Arteta is, essentially, something of a rookie. Before taking high-end jobs in the Premier League, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, for example, had been managers of hugely-scrutinised marquee clubs for eight and seven years respectively. Experience is invaluable at the rarefied levels of the game, as Carlo Ancelotti has highlighted in the past four years at Real Madrid. If, at the age of 42 - four years younger than Arne Slot - Arteta is not still on a learning curve, something is wrong.

And even though it was December, 2019, when Arteta assumed the role, there is still a feeling that he is growing into the job. Watch him in the technical area for the imminent meeting with Manchester City and you probably won’t guess it, but he might even be calming down. Arteta has been booked twice in the Premier League this season, which puts him strictly mid-table in the yellow card rankings for managers.

His reaction to Myles Lewis-Skelly’s controversial dismissal at Wolves was not over-the-top and his words on the subsequent online abuse of Michael Oliver were thoughtful and measured. And while he has pointed the problem out, Arteta has not exactly been persistent in bemoaning a considerable number of injuries this season, not in the way his great friend Pep has. Arteta and Guardiola cross swords as rival managers for the 14th time, with the Arsenal man having only three wins to his name, only one of those being in the Premier League.

And that is why a victory at the Emirates against the champions - and, crucially, a victory allied to an emphatic performance - could be a landmark moment for Arteta. Sometimes, when you are detached from a club and even an area, it is hard to comprehend some of the emotions that seem to swirl around it. Looking in from the outside, there appears to have been as much negativity as positivity surrounding Arsenal this season. But Arteta has navigated five months of the season, accruing only four defeats in 36 fixtures, comfortably securing a place in the knockout phase of the Champions League and sitting second in the Premier League table.

Only Liverpool have a superior goal difference and Arsenal are on a 13-game unbeaten stretch in the Premier League that has seen them win eight and draw five. Problems? There are a lot of supporters who would love to have Arsenal’s problems. But this latest contest with City is hugely significant. Guardiola’s team might have scraped together a six-match run without a Premier League loss, but they remain a team that is there for the taking. If you like a bet on football, the even-money odds for an Arsenal win are distinctly generous. The bookmakers do not often get it wrong but they have on this occasion.

But Arsenal and Arteta still have to deliver against a team that has given them a ton of trouble in recent times. If there really is some sort of changing of the Premier League guard, Arsenal and Arteta need to do what Liverpool and Slot did at Anfield at the start of December - flex muscles against the weakening champions. Whether or not that would be pivotal in the title race would remain to be seen. But while a trophy would greatly help, a statement showing against his old mentor would be another sign that, just over five years after leaving the court of Pep, Arteta is coming of age as an elite manager.

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