Kyle Walker reveals surprise pick for his toughest-ever opponent as Man City loanee snubs Kylian Mbappe & Vinicius Jr in favour of ex-Arsenal star

As a six-time Premier League champion and Champions League winner, the 34-year-old has faced some of the best names in the game. However, the right-back reflected on the biggest challenge of them all and picked ex-Arsenal and Manchester City star Samir Nasri as the man who gave him most trouble, thanks to his partnership with Gael Clichy.

"People are going to say Mbappe, [Sadio] Mane, Neymar, Vinicius [Junior], these types of players, but I used to hate playing against City when I was at Tottenham and Nasri," he said on the Kyle Walker Podcast. "Because when I think about the most intelligent, who I really didn't like to play against, he used to stand in pockets where you think as a younger player, that I was then: 'Do I go in and follow him? Do I leave him?' But then all of a sudden Gael Clichy used to be on the overlap, running in behind you. And I think that's the relationship that they built together, with playing obviously a number of years at Arsenal together, they took that to Manchester City. It's the chess game, isn't it? When it's man for man. I always thought whenever I came against City and Nasri and Gael Clichy were playing it was going to be a tough game."

Nasri left City in the summer of 2017, the same transfer period Walker joined the club from Tottenham. The Frenchman went on to play for Antalyaspor, West Ham and Anderlecht before ending his career five years ago. Walker, meanwhile, went on to enjoy a successful seven-and-a-half years at City before he joined AC Milan on loan in January.

Walker has started seven of his 10 Serie A appearances for a Milan side sitting ninth in the Italian top flight. They come up against Bologna, who are seventh, on Friday.