Pep Guardiola says Manchester City’s rivals want to “take the club off the radar”. Everyone, he says, wants City to be punished in a way that no Premier League club has ever been punished. And while he doesn’t mention Arsenal by name, it doesn’t seem like a wild shot in the dark to suggest they are at the top of his mind.

And perhaps he’s not wrong, if you’ve followed the story of how that rivalry developed, the resentments that have become embedded in it and why the dynamic between City and Arsenal transcends a normal sporting context. It’s just that he – and Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager – have chosen to maintain what can be roughly described as a thin facade of cordiality.

Their last meeting at the Etihad Stadium, which ended 2-2, was the most exciting since Arsenal replaced Liverpool as City’s biggest threat. Exhibit A: the sight of Erling Haaland throwing the ball at Gabriel’s head after City’s stoppage-time equaliser. But what’s more, this is also a rivalry that reaches right to the top of both clubs.

In short, they are looking at each other with cold, suspicious eyes. This has been the case for some time, but it is even more pronounced since Arsenal established themselves as genuine title contenders and City were accused of a slew of financial irregularities. The case began last week. It is expected to last up to three months and, whatever the outcome, both clubs may have to use all their restraint to prevent their true feelings – mutual dislike – from becoming apparent.

For people outside the clubs in question, the full story may not be immediately apparent, for the simple reason that the leading clubs (and managers) today largely prefer not to make their complaints and suspicions about the other clubs public.

Arteta and Guardiola before the game (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Arsenal managers should not be expected to denounce “financial doping” at City, as Arsene Wenger had previously done about the club that had caused him great grief in his final years as Arsenal manager.

No one will step out of line, as David Dein, the former vice-president of Arsenal FC, once did when he expressed his dislike of the nouveau riche spending at Chelsea by announcing: “Roman Abramovich has parked his Russian tanks in our front garden and is shooting at us with 50 pound notes.”

If the debate between City and Arsenal is simply about which club is the most elegant and who conducts its business most appropriately, public abuse can lose points.

Behind the scenes, however, it is openly admitted that the current dynamic is nowhere near as warm as the two coaches sometimes portray. This was also clear to the fans. “Champions again,” sing City fans at home games. “Another fraud,” the away team responded on Sunday.

None of this was apparent when the two managers spoke to the media. But that is no surprise. Arteta always takes care to remain polite when talking about his former club. Guardiola is also respectful. “You have to give Arsenal credit,” he said more than once about the defensive performance of the away team with ten men. They had reminded him, he said, that they were “one of the best teams in the world.” Arteta smiled knowingly. “They (City) are The best,” he said.

What the public never gets to see is the scene in the conference room and the opportunity to see how the people in question interact with each other. Is the handshake awkward? Is the smile rigid? Almost certainly, yes. Is there any warmth at all? Only superficially.

The background is important here because, fundamentally, it all boils down to Arsenal’s firm belief that the rules were distorted and broken, that City damaged the league and that the punishment must be severe.

Arsenal are not alone on this front. “We have no friends,” admitted a City manager some time ago when the conversation turned to which Premier League clubs could be potential allies.

However, few would welcome with more enthusiasm than Arsenal the possibility that City’s achievements during the Sheikh Mansour era could be marred by a court ruling that would do irreparable damage to the reputation of the wealthy Abu Dhabi club.

And that should come as no surprise. Let’s go back to December 2012, when the original ‘Big Four’ wrote to Richard Scudamore, then chief executive of the Premier League, demanding that Financial Fair Play rules be upheld in order, they hoped, to stop City from changing the football landscape. The letter was signed by Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. But the most telling thing was the image at the top of the page. A cannon in a red shield – a paper with Arsenal’s head on it.

A decade later, Arsenal’s chief executive Richard Garlick is a lawyer who previously worked as director of football for the Premier League and knows the rules inside and out.

Tim Lewis, Arsenal’s vice-president, is another advocate. Lewis is outspoken and not afraid to voice his opinions at Premier League meetings. He is a long-time Arsenal fan and grew up with the Wenger philosophy that there is something fundamentally wrong with the Premier League, or any other league, including a state-owned football club.

Wenger’s argument was that it would be impossible for Arsenal to have such spending power “unless we find oil at Highbury”. Add to that their resentment, even jealousy, of City winning all the trophies, and it has become an integral part of Arsenal’s strategy to position themselves at all times as a responsible club that plays by the rules and does things right.

Players argue during Sunday’s game (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

This, in turn, can get on City’s nerves like sandpaper, especially as they have never forgotten how Arsenal tried to lure Arteta away from his role as Guardiola’s assistant in December 2019.

You may remember the embarrassment when Vinai Venkatesham, then Arsenal chief executive, was photographed leaving Arteta’s house in south Manchester.

Arsenal had just lost 3-0 at home to City and Venkatesham had left after the game, arriving in Manchester at 11pm and staying until the early hours. He was accompanied by Huss Fahmy, Arsenal’s then head of football. And strictly speaking, City would have been entitled to make an official complaint about what at first glance looked like a clandestine operation.

They chose not to and under normal circumstances it would have been largely forgotten, as it is not unusual in the football industry. Almost five years later, however, it can sting to see Arsenal portrayed as hypocritical and City as alleged serial rule breakers.

In an effort to put pressure on City, numerous stories have been leaked to the media and some people in Manchester suspect that some of the details have been supplied by people with links to Arsenal. This may not necessarily be true and we will probably never know where the stories originated. But the fact that there is some suspicion at all is another indication of the distrust that exists between the two clubs.

As for the accusation of “financial doping”, this has always caused eye-rolling at Manchester United, as Arsenal apparently enjoyed profiting from City’s wealth and sold Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Touré, Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy to the club during Wenger’s two years in office.

With that in mind, it’s hardly surprising that games are getting more exciting and everything that happens off the pitch is now more visible on it than ever before. Something has changed and while both managers are not forgetting to remain polite, it is perhaps inevitable given that both clubs are aware that this season’s title could ultimately be decided by things off the pitch.

(Top photo: Getty; Paul ELLIS / AFP, Sebastian Frej/MB Media, Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA, Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC; Design by Dan Goldfarb)