“Hopefully they will just not be good enough for us” – Kevin De Bruyne delivers ‘really, really good’ verdict about Arsenal under Mikel Arteta

Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne has provided a glowing assessment of Arsenal this season. He insisted that he's not surprised to see the progress Mikel Arteta has made with his team in the ongoing campaign.

Arsenal have taken the Premier League by storm this season. They have won eight of their nine matches while playing a beautiful brand of attacking football in the English top flight.

It is indeed delightful to see Arteta's side now rivaling Pep Guardiola's Manchester City for the league title this season. The Arsenal manager worked under the City boss for over three years at the Etihad Stadium before switching to north London back in December 2019.

🎙 Mikel spoke to the press ahead of #LEEARS, covering:

🏥 Fitness updates
🗓 The packed schedule
🆚 What he expects from Leeds

🗞 Read the full transcript here 👇

De Bruyne, who worked closely with the tactician during his time in Manchester, stated that he wasn't surprised to see his progress. The Manchester City playmaker told Sky Sports (via Daily Mail) when asked if he's shocked by the Gunners' brilliance this season:

"No, not really. Obviously I see a lot of similarities with the way we play, but that's always been his style. When he stopped playing and he had the opportunity to come here I think it was a good learning school and obviously we had great years."

He added:

"I saw an evolution from the beginning of Mikel to after three years when he left. At the beginning he was adapting but then he was getting more and more into his role. We also saw he had a lot of ambition and when an opportunity came he took that. It's nice to see that he got the time from Arsenal. I'm happy for him that it's going well."

MATCHDAY 🙌

🆚 Leeds United
🏟 Elland Road
🕠 5.30pm (GMT)

Follow all the action 👉 #LEEARS https://t.co/TEJ6lIclQE

Arsenal currently lead the race for the Premier League with an impressive 24 points.

De Bruyne has nothing but praise for the Gunners but hopes that they won't be able to stop City from defending their title:

"They're playing really, really, really good football. Hopefully they will just not be good enough for us," the playmaker said.

The Cityzens are currently one point behind the Gunners in the league table.

What's next for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta?

The Gunners will continue their push for the Premier League title with an away clash with Leeds United scheduled for tomorrow (October 16). They will go into this fixture as the better side, having won four of their last five games. Their opponents, meanwhile, are winless in the same number of matches.

Mikel Arteta's men will then switch their attention to the UEFA Europa League where they'll take on Dutch outfit PSV Eindhoven on Thursday (October 20).