Manchester: It would be easy to bill Manchester City’s meeting with Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon as a showdown between the Premier League’s two purists, but Pep Guardiola was keen to dismantle any notion of him perennially prioritising style over substance.

That is certainly an accusation that has been levelled at Arsene Wenger over the 12 years since Arsenal last won the title, but Guardiola believes that purism and pragmatism are not mutually exclusive.

The City manager is the first to admit that his introduction to English football has been an eye-opener. But he is also adamant that it is not just the experience of the past six months that has taught him about the importance of allying silk with steel. He insists he was a pragmatist as well as a perfectionist at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Asked if Arsenal’s circumstances over the past decade had underlined to him the importance of marrying different qualities to achieve success in the Premier League, the Catalan was unequivocal. “I am pragmatic,” he said.

“I’m here because I won. I want to win. I’m so pragmatic, guys — concede few goals and score goals.” Guardiola’s logic is simple — he could not have won 21 leading trophies in seven seasons as a coach in Spain and Germany without his teams having a steely streak to complement their thrill-seeking DNA.

But the Premier League presents different challenges and Guardiola acknowledges he is still striving to find the right balance.

The question is whether he will prove to be better at finding it than Wenger, to whom he referred affectionately as Arsenal’s “commander-in-chief”.

It is a phrase Guardiola says he has found himself employing regularly after bingeing on Netflix television series such as House of Cards, which charts a Machiavellian politician’s rise to the role of US president.

“I understand it’s not easy to win the Premier League, but I have a lot of respect for his career,” Guardiola said of Wenger.

“I admire the way he tries to play and especially the quality of the players they like and they buy.

“If we are lazy and not strong enough, they have the quality [to hurt us].”

In the 2-0 win over Watford on Wednesday, City went back to basics in the search for the defensive cohesion that had deserted them in the 4-1 capitulation at champions Leicester four days earlier.

“I’m here to learn what works here and to try, of course, to adapt,” he said.

“But the principle isn’t going to change — the principle is the opponent has the ball and I’m going to pick it up. I’m going to adapt.”

It will certainly be interesting to see how Arsenal react to Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat at Everton and they have the added benefit of facing a City side without the suspended pair of Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho, as well as midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, who was confirmed to have suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury against Watford that is expected to end his season. Wenger sees a kindred spirit in Guardiola. “We are similar, he tries to play,” Wenger said. “You want every manager who has a positive philosophy to succeed.”