Arteta in pole position to succeed Pep

PEP Guardiola tends to get most of the credit when City win, which is fair enough, as he takes the flak when they don’t.

His backroom staff rarely venture into the limelight, but this season, Guardiola has doled out praise to assistant Mikel Arteta for coming up with game-changing moments.

City broke the deadlock against Everton last Wednesday with a crafty free kick routine.

Ilkay Gundogan shaped to take the free kick right-footed, sparking the Everton defenders to begin their runs back towards their own goal for the inswinger, City players running with them to add to the con.

But Gundogan stopped, and instead David Silva curled it away from goal, where Aymeric Laporte had hung back, and so had a free header, which he duly thumped into the back of the net.

Guardiola said: “We are vulnerable in set pieces, we are not the tallest team in the world, but we defend with a good mentality.

“Of course Mikel Arteta works a lot on set pieces and we get the goal.”

Arteta is understood to have bought a house in Manchester, reinforcing the belief that he is being groomed to be Guardiola’s successor.

Arteta stepped up to become Guardiola’s number two last year – when the man who had occupied that position from the earliest days of his managerial career, Domenec Torrent, took the New York City head coach job – and the 36-year-old Basque is in pole position to succeed Guardiola.