Pep Guardiola has confirmed there has been no approach for Man City assistant coach Mikel Arteta Amid reported interest from Arsenal.

The former Gunners midfielder has been linked with replacing Unai Emery in the Emirates Stadium dugout.

Freddie Ljungberg has been placed in temporary charge of the first-team while Arsenal chiefs look for a permanent successor to Emery.

The Gunners are winless in nine games in all competitions and suffered a 2-1 home defeat by Brighton on Thursday.

Arteta is yet to manage a club, but has been learning from Guardiola for the past three years at the Etihad.

When asked if City had received any approach for Arteta, Guardiola replied: “No.”

He gave the same answer when asked if Arteta had spoken to him about his immediate future, before admitting he wants him to stay in Manchester.

Guardiola said: “I’m not a guy that puts a gun to the heads of my staff or players and says what they have to do.

“We are human beings and everyone has dreams and desires. Hopefully he can stay this season and the next one – as long as possible in this club.

“That would be my dream, but Mikel has his own life and I will never say what he has to do.

“I arrived here and we were in touch about working together and the time we have spent together has been magnificent.

“I tried to help him and he has helped me a lot. He knows what I want and what the club wants.”

City host rivals Manchester United on Saturday – with the game LIVE on talkSPORT – looking to keep the pressure on league leaders Liverpool, who hold an 11-point lead over them.

You can read the best bits from Guardiola’s pre-match press conference, below…

On Gabriel Jesus’ importance in the absence of Sergio Aguero

“He has to be himself. We need him and his goals. That’s why we won the last game. We need him for his goals and if he puts this idea in his head he is able to do it every game.

“For all the players, confidence has to be there all the time not just because of good or bad performances or winning or losing games.

“The greatest athletes all the time have a strong mentality that we all have to learn from. That is the key difference.

“They have to play, otherwise they will not be in a high level playing in the Premier League.

“They have quality and they can control it, they don’t need their manager, mum or friends to speak to them. They have to believe they are good enough.”

On injuries

(Oleksandr) Zinchenko has trained for the last few days with all the squad. He’s ready but in his physical condition I don’t know how many minutes he can play.”

On the job Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is doing at Manchester United

“Well, good. I’m not there to know. It’s difficult for me to judge my colleagues, I don’t know how they work.

“It’s uncomfortable for me. I think he’s an exceptional person but I don’t know.”

On Manchester United’s superior history

“Normally here we talk about what happened in the recent past and yesterday or the day before but everything is changing.

“Tomorrow at 5.30pm we start the game and the players decide who is going to win.

“Of course the history is huge and they have quality players and you have to try to beat them. We start today to speak about how they are as a team and what we should do to beat them.”

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