Man City vs Arsenal: Emery praises 'world's best' Guardiola

Unai Emery heaped praise on Pep Guardiola, who has delivered silverware at Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Barcelona.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola

Unai Emery will go head-to-head with Pep Guardiola when Arsenal visits Premier League champion Manchester City on Sunday, having never beaten his countryman.

Ahead of the much-awaited fixture, the Arsenal boss labelled his City counterpart as the best manager in the world.

Former Valencia and Sevilla head coach Emery suffered a 2-0 home defeat to Guardiola's City in the pair's last clash in August.

"I have analysed a lot of teams and coaches and I think it's difficult to find one coach who is better than Guardiola," Emery said. "His career is a very big career. We started together. He started with the Barcelona second team, I started with Lorca and Almeria [In Spain's third and second tiers]. I learned a lot looking at his team — it's good to look at each other when we are coaches to learn different things between us. I think in his career he's doing the best in all the coaches in the world.

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"He has had the possibility to take the best players at Barcelona, in Bayern and in City, little by little. He is, every year, improving with great players and also paying a lot for some players. But he led them, at Barcelona, Bayern and City, one step more every place."

Arsenal is fourth in the Premier League, nine points adrift of second-placed City, which is five points behind leader Liverpool after 24 matches.

Guardiola also had praise for Emery, telling Sky Sports : "He's an incredibly well-prepared manager. I've never been with him in his clubs but my impression from outside is that he's a manager who is well prepared. He has an incredible work ethic, he's a fighter and he's an incredible, incredible manager.

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"The results he has had in the Premier League have been quite good. Of course they lost in the League Cup and the FA Cup, but the Premier League is tough so qualifying for the Champions League is a big success for next season. The first season in England and in a new country is not easy but when I watch him from outside it's been quite good."