Arsenal: Mikel Arteta lauds Vincent Kompany ahead of Bayern Munich encounter | OneFootball

Arteta and Kompany were colleagues at Manchester City

Mikel Arteta is not surprised that Vincent Kompany has been a success at Bayern Munich - because he always knew the Belgian would be a top coach.

The German side have continued their sparkling form this season and they have won 16 of their 17 games, drawing the other one.

Arteta knows Kompany well from their time together at Manchester City, where they spent two and a half years alongside each other.

Arteta was one of Pep Guardiola’s assistants and he always suspected that Kompany, who was City’s captain, would become a manager.

“My feeling was that Vinnie was going to be excellent at whatever he chose to do,” he said.

“I’m very happy to think that it went so well for him, because he has such a presence, intelligence, love for the game, work rate.

“So, I knew whatever he was going to touch, he was going to make it really good, so I’m not surprised at all.”

Bayern have been the form team in this season’s Champions League and are top of the table after the first four games.

The German side have a 100 per cent record and have scored 14 goals, conceding just three.

“Every opponent brings different challenges, obviously,” said Arteta.

“They are in a great moment. The level of consistency they show in results, performances, in every metric that they have, it’s very, very impressive.

“We know that, but as well that’s a massive opportunity as well for us to show what we are capable of.

“This is the kind of game in the competition that we want to face, and we’ve been very consistent in both competitions, and as you mentioned they have as well. Tomorrow is a great test for us to see where we are.

“We know the importance of the match, we are in a really strong position and we want to maintain that and we know that we have a beautiful and very demanding game ahead of us.”