Unai Emery knows victory against Pep Guardiola will demonstrate his progress at Arsenal

Unai Emery knows that should he finally register his first victory against Pep Guardiola, it will be viewed as a measure of his progress at Arsenal since taking charge of the north London club last summer.

The two teams met on the opening weekend of the Premier League campaign when Guardiola oversaw a 2-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium. It was the eleventh occasion the two managers have met, with Emery once again unable to gain the upper hand over his fellow Spaniard.

For the Arsenal manager, the challenge of beating Guardiola remains as testing as ever. Emery regards his opposite number as the world’s outstanding coach, dismissing the suggestion the Catalan’s record of success is down to fortune in inheriting good players at the clubs he has managed.

“I have analysed a lot of teams and coaches and I think it’s difficult to find one coach who is better than Guardiola,” said Emery. “His career is a very big career. We started together. He started with the Barcelona second team, I started with Lorca after Almeria when he was starting to train. I learned a lot looking at his team. It’s good to look at each other when we are coaches to learn different things between us. I think in his career he is doing the best in all the coaches in the world.”

The key to Guardiola’s success, Emery believes, is not simply working with good players, but more his ability to improve them. “He has had the possibility to take the best players at Barcelona, in Bayern Munich and in City little by little,” he added. “He is every year improving with great players and also paying a lot for some players. But he led them, at Barcelona, Bayern and City, one step more every place. This for me is the quality that makes me say he is the best.”

The arrival of Denis Suarez on loan from Barcelona last week strengthens Emery’s options at the Etihad Stadium and the manager admits the Spaniard could be included for his debut. But it will take more than the addition of one player to give Arsenal the edge and Emery admits his side will have to be bold in their approach if they are to get anything from the game, particularly as City will be smarting from their midweek defeat at Newcastle United that allowed Liverpool to open a five-point gap at the head of the table.

“For us it is the same because our own aim is to be in the top four and also we are with Chelsea now,” said Emery, whose side moved back into the top four on Wednesday on goals scored as a result of Chelsea’s 4-0 defeat at Bournemouth.

“We need individual quality, we really do,” he added. “Usually we want to have the possession more than the opposition but against Manchester City, maybe I think it is not possible because they impose usually the possession first and the positioning. But we are going to try to not let them have the possession very easy and also don't let them have the positioning on the pitch better than us. But this detail is a big detail!”