Samir Nasri opens up on rows with 'arrogant' Pep Guardiola at Man City

Samir Nasri has revealed how 'arrogant' Pep Guardiola scolded him about being overweight during their brief time working together at Manchester City.

The France international told Guardiola 'don't yell at me, I'm not a child' to silence him during his second dressing down over his weight in the space of two days during the summer of 2016.

Nasri had been at City for five seasons when Guardiola arrived as manager but the new boss wasn't at all happy with the midfielder's physical condition.

It resulted in Nasri being loaned out to Sevilla that season, having played just one competitive game under Guardiola, and then being sold to Turkish club Antalyaspor.

'I went into it with him from our first meetings,' Nasri recalled to L'Equipe. 'On the first day, he summoned me to his office and asked me: "What do you want to do?"

'I tell him: "It's up to you to tell me if you're counting on me." He replied: "I'm counting on you if you're really well in the head."

'Then I do my first training, everything is going well, he is happy with me. The next day, Pep summons me again and there he yells at me about my weight.

'He found out because we were weighed every day. There, I said to him: "Reduce your voice, don't yell at me, I'm not a child, I'm 29 years old."

'Maybe my holiday was an escape for me, a time to do what I wanted to do because I was coming out of a difficult season [a hamstring injury kept him sidelined for four months in 2015-16] and because in my personal life a lot of things happened.

'And there, Pep answers me: "It's true, I'm sorry."

In the summer of 2016, Nasri was left out of two tour matches in China because of his weight issues.

At the time, Guardiola said: 'Sami arrived a little bit overweight but he's much better now. Still there is a little bit of weight. Last season he was injured and we want to avoid that.

'The weight is so important. When you are not fit, danger is coming. You're not fast enough or quick enough in the head.'

Gael Clichy revealed at the time that Guardiola wouldn't let anyone weighing over 70kg train with the team.

Nasri is now a pundit for Canal+ in France and will be part of their coverage of Wednesday night's crucial title clash between City and Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium.

Asked what Guardiola is like, Nasri added to L'Equipe: 'In front of the media, Guardiola constantly celebrates the qualities of his players. During individual interviews, he is how he is in everyday life.

'He's arrogant, but arrogant in a good way: he knows he's the best coach and he lets you know that.

'Pep knows what he brings to the club and he knows that when he came to City he had carte blanche. So for him it's quite easy to impose his law. Afterwards he is a frank and honest person.'

Guardiola comes up against his former City assistant Mikel Arteta again on Wednesday - someone else Nasri has been trained by.

'The first year, Mikel was still a bit of a player, he took part in training with us. Then he took on more responsibilities,' he said.

'He explained the exercises very well, he was a passionate person who knew his subject.

'I'm not surprised at what is happening to him today because even when he was a player, he was a real leader.'