From Barcelona in 1999 to this year’s title race, Mikel Arteta the apprentice chasing Pep Guardiola

As Mikel Arteta tells it, he was man of the match. However, the absence of YouTube footage means it will be difficult to verify his claims. And, for what it’s worth, the reporter in Berlin that day for Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo, Joan Domenech, says he has no memory of the 17-year-old’s performance in Barcelona’s 2-1 defeat.

The significance of this otherwise forgotten pre-season friendly in Germany against Hertha BSC was that Arteta was playing for Barça’s first team. This was the culmination of a dream, the reason why he left his home in San Sebastian at the age of 14 to cry himself to sleep in the dormitories of the Barca academy, known as La Masia. Young lads made that sacrifice to line up, as Arteta did that day, with the likes of Luis Figo and Patrick Kluivert.

Domenech recorded an interview with an excited and articulate teenage Arteta after the game, saying, “It’s a dream come true. I thought this couldn’t be me, seeing myself playing next to Figo and Kluivert.’ It must have seemed like his career was completely on its feet.

But it wasn’t. That was his only appearance under coach Louis van Gaal that season. He flew the team back to Valencia, where Barcelona played in the Spanish Super Cup, the equivalent of the Community Shield, and instead of staying with them, he was sent straight to Barcelona to continue the season with the B team. to take. The following season, he got two more pre-season friendly matches for the first team and scored against Dutch side WHC Wezep. He was then loaned out to Paris St Germain, never to return.

Still, a Barca first-team debut, even in a pre-season friendly, is something. But there’s a weird synchronicity to how the event unfolded. Van Gaal equipped players with the Super Cup in mind. He didn’t want an important midfielder to get injured and that’s why Arteta was invited to Germany.

Arteta came on at half-time to hold midfield in a match against Hertha Berlin in 1999

And so it was that when Areta came on at half-time to hold midfield, the man he replaced was none other than Pep Guardiola. Arteta smiles when reminded of the game and, of course, remembers who he replaced. “Foot!” he says.

The high school student could hardly expect his destiny to become so entwined with this man. After all, Guardiola was a legend of the club and even at the age of 17, Arteta probably realized that he would never put him out of the team. But their lives would become intertwined, even as Arteta made his way to Arsenal via Rangers and Everton, while Guardiola joined Barca after spells in Italy, Mexico and Qatar.

They kept in touch. When Guardiola coached the great Barca team and they played against Chelsea in 2012, he contacted Arteta, then at Arsenal, for some tactical insight. Impressed, he vowed to hire Arteta as an assistant if he ever worked in England. Arteta, who came to the end of his career in 2015, reminded him that Arsenal played against Bayern Munich. Guardiola was coach of the German team when they met in the Champions League.

And so they would team up at Manchester City from 2017, master and apprentice again, before Arteta was wrestled south and now challenge each other for the Premier League title. It would be as if Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger were childhood friends.

“I had wild dreams, but I certainly couldn’t imagine this happening,” Arteta said. “It’s the beauty of this game, of this industry, that a very good friend… we were together in Barcelona, ​​​​then we separate our work and our careers, we came together in the same city, [then] and now with different clubs. It’s just beautiful.’ As for the Barca game itself, Arteta does not remember any specifics. “I’m going to say I played well!” he says. There are no videos he is told. ‘No video? Then yes. Man of the match!’

Domenech went through his notes about the game last week and what turned out to be a memorable substitution. There were two other midfielders in Arteta’s generation at Barca who were also pushing for a first-team squad at the time, though neither played against Hertha. Andres Iniesta and Xavi would quickly make their mark. And Domenech remembers that Guardiola supported him after the game of the debutant who took his place. “With Xavi, Iniesta and Arteta, everything indicates that Barca will have no problems in this position for the next 20 years.” Well, two out of three isn’t bad.

The pair were together at Man City – now Arteta’s Gunners are battling them for the title

After Manchester City’s victory on Saturday, the gauntlet has been thrown for Arsenal at Liverpool

Guardiola could not have imagined what a pain – in the nicest way possible – this protégé would turn out to be. It makes you wonder how much Frankenstein blames himself for the monster he created. Not so much by allowing Arteta to leave City for Arsenal, but perhaps by allowing Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus to leave. That meant Arsenal had the quality to bring a full-back into midfield and direct the game, a piece of pure Pep improv, meaning Arsenal are now overstretching the midfield.

And with Jesus, Arsenal have added a consistent goalscorer and a centre-forward who puts the pressure on from the front, another Guardiola trait. You assume City felt Arsenal were not serious rivals when they decided to sell the pair given Arsenal’s fragility last season.

The Gunners have not beaten Liverpool in the league since 2012. In those nine years they lost at Anfield twice 5-1, twice 4-0 and three times 3-1 plus two draws.

We may have underestimated the tenacity of the scrawny 17-year-old fourth-choice midfielder for Barcelona in 1999. He may not have been good enough to take over Guardiola on the field, but he may be good enough to take the Premier League by storm . title from him.