Pep Guardiola has hailed the work of Mikel Arteta at Arsenal ahead of their crunch match against Manchester City on Sunday.

The Gunners travel to the Etihad Stadium this weekend straight after their first Champions League game of the season away against Atalanta on Thursday. Things will be made even tougher for Arsenal by the absence of captain Martin Odegaard, who has been ruled out by Arteta for “a while” with an ankle injury.

Arsenal know the City game will be crucial to their chances of preventing their rivals from winning a fifth straight Premier League title. Arteta’s side were held to a 0-0 draw by City in March last season and that point helped cement their position in the run-in.

City were frustrated by Inter Milan as they opened their Champions League campaign with a goalless draw on Wednesday night, which also included an injury to Kevin De Bruyne. Guardiola is now focused on beating Arsenal – and he knows it won’t be easy against his former assistant.

"I don’t know the idea of Mikel, of how they’re going to play. I’ll have to read it and adapt it,” Guardiola said after the Inter draw. "But it’s another unbelievable team, they defend really well, they don’t concede chances, they don’t concede goals, they are really good in many aspects, they control everything.

"They’ve been the biggest challenge, title contenders the last two seasons they are there and they will be there for many years because they create a deeper squad, a young team. So it’s another good test but we are in September, so I like to see the team, many things we are better than the past, even better than the past how we’ve done it, we’ll see what happens on Sunday."

Arteta will watch City’s 0-0 draw with Inter and perhaps learn something from Simone Inzaghi’s approach at the Etihad. City had 60 per cent of the ball but fashioned little of note as Inter threatened frequently on the counter-attack.

“We played very well,” Guardiola said. “I love my team – I have fantastic players. Inter is a team that defends exceptionally well – they are masters not only in defence but also in transition phases. Therefore, I am content with our performance. I liked everything.

“Of course, I would have preferred to win, but I have no regrets as Inter is the best team when defending deeply with 11 players. I admire their organisation of play. We knew how challenging this match would be, hence I say that we played well, considering the quality of the opponent.

“Knowing how Inter would defend, I understood that we wouldn’t be able to create 25 goalscoring opportunities – it is simply impossible when their players assist each other so well.”