LONDON (AP) — Days after professing his “love” and “respect” for Pep Guardiola, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta spoke in an equally effusive manner about another influential Spanish coach he will face in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Luis Enrique takes his Paris Saint-Germain team to Emirates Stadium for the most high-profile fixture in the second round of group games.
Arteta and Enrique go way back. They were together at Barcelona in the late 1990s and early 2000s when Arteta was starting his professional career and Enrique was coming toward the end of his.
Arteta said he “learnt a lot of things” from Enrique as a player and now as a coach, saying on Monday his compatriot “brings a smile on my face.”
“I am a huge admirer of him,” Arteta said. “I remember his personality, huge character, huge energy, very supportive of his young players. What I love about him is that wherever he has been, as a player or as a manager, his fingerprints are all over the place. You can see it’s his team. You can see PSG is his team.
“He has this unbelievable power. … Then there’s his approach to life, his profession — it’s something to really look at and I learnt a lot of things from him.”
Arteta spent much of last week talking about Guardiola and Manchester City amid the fallout from their feisty 2-2 draw that appears to have ignited a rivalry between the teams.
He has long been viewed as a protégé of Guardiola, yet it seems that Enrique has been an influence, too.
“I love his honesty — he is very straightforward, he looks you in the eyes and tells you what he thinks,” Arteta said. “In the end, players appreciate that.”
Arteta described PSG, where he enjoyed a spell on loan in 2000-01 alongside players like Ronaldinho and Nicolas Anelka, as a team “probably at the highest level you can find in European football.”
Enrique was also full of praise for Arteta's achievements with Arsenal.
“I'm looking forward to seeing him tomorrow, even if it's just five minutes before the match to have a chat,” he said. “He is one of the best coaches around. He has been able to transform a club like Arsenal and now they are one of the most competitive sides in the worlds. He is certainly a great coach and a great person.”
Enrique’s side leads the French league with five wins and a draw from the opening six games of its title defense and began the Champions League with a 1-0 win over Girona — albeit courtesy of a 90th-minute own-goal.
Arsenal started with a 0-0 draw at Atalanta.
Arteta said Arsenal will check on the fitness of full backs Ben White and Riccardo Calafiori on Monday.
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The Associated Press
