Former Arsenal star snubs Arsene Wenger for Pep Guardiola as manager he ‘learned the most from’ | OneFootball

Como manager and former Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas has hailed Pep Guardiola’s tactical mind amid comparisons to the many great managers he played for.

Fabregas has been blessed by working with some of European football’s most prestigious managers over the course of an illustrious playing career, working under the likes of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, and Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.

But amid those legendary coaches in the Premier League and abroad, one stood out for Fabregas from the rest on a tactical level – Pep Guardiola, who coached the Spaniard at Barcelona in the 2011/12 season.

“I think, tactically, Pep (Guardiola) is the one that I learned the most from,” he said in an interview with ESPN.

“He always studied the opponent. He always knew exactly what they could do and he could give you solutions. And this is what I try to bring to the table for the players,” he continued.

“They always need help to identify what’s happening on the pitch. And I think Pep helped me a lot in this way to understand different things.”

Cesc Fabregas is another in a long line of current professional managers succeeding after working under Pep Guardiola in some capacity, leading Italian club Como back into the top-flight after 21 years away.

Enzo Maresca at Chelsea, Vincent Kompany at Bayern Munich, and Mikel Arteta at Arsenal are just some names on the growing list of Pep Guardiola disciples on the up around world football.

Back on the pitch however, Guardiola finds himself potentially locked in another tight Premier League title race as Manchester City head into a weekend clash with Wolves trailing league leaders Liverpool by one point.

To make matters worse, the City boss could be without some of his stars heading to Molineux, as Kevin De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Manuel Akanji, Savinho, and Ederson were all absent from training on Thursday after returning from the international break.

In some positive news however, standout defender Nathan Ake has returned to training after suffering an injury earlier in the campaign, while Mateo Kovacic trained as normal despite missing both of Croatia’s recent outings in the UEFA Nations League.