He likes one type of player, with quality and respect for the ball. They are things I like a lot, so if people say we play a little bit like Arsenal of the last 20 years then it’s good for us.”

Guardiola is a serial winner, lifting 21 trophies in his first seven years of senior management with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

He has shone after the first season of his career without silverware in his debut campaign at City in 2016-17.

Rather than abandon his principles, the Catalan has doubled down on the passing and pressing game he made famous at Barcelona to create Pep Guardiola

the spectacle and success for which he was lured to Manchester by the club’s cash-rich Abu-dhabi owners in the first place. Wenger, by contrast, despite an enviable record of success in the FA Cup in recent years, has failed to arrest his side’s general slide from the pinnacle of the English game.

Guardiola has also demonstrated a far shrewder sense of timing than Wenger in knowing when to walk away.

He left his boyhood club in Barca as their most successful coach because the intense demands of four seasons in the job had taken their toll.

Likewise, his time at Bayern never seemed likely to extend beyond the initial three-year contract he signed despite winning three straight Bundesliga titles.

“No chance,” Guardiola responded at the thought of matching Wenger’s twodecade long stay at City. “That is not going to happen because I am not going to train in 20 years more.”

Wenger’s desperation to hold on to recreate his glory days means it is increasingly likely he will be edged towards the exit door before he walks come the end.