““Beating won’t be easy unless we focus on stopping those two particular players…I have deployed a perfect plan for that already”: Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta believes Man United has only TWO good players, unveiled his perfect plan to stop them
Arsenal host Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon in the FA Cup.
The Gunners are in desperate need of a result against the Red Devils, after producing below-par displays against Brighton and Newcastle United in their last two outings.
Mikel Arteta is under increasing pressure due to these results, and thus it’s vital that the mood in N5 isn’t further soured by an early FA Cup exit.
Arsenal beat Manchester United comfortably at the Emirates in December, but the north-west outfit will be buoyed by their encouraging performance at Anfield last weekend.
Ruben Amorim’s team showed signs of life against Liverpool, and Arteta’s side must be at their best to prevent them from building on this result.
Arteta compares his start at Arsenal to Amorim’s at Man Utd
Amorim took charge of United back in November, and it’s fair to suggest that the Portuguese hasn’t exactly hit the ground running in English football.
The former Sporting boss’ has managed just four wins in his opening 12 matches in all competitions in the dugout, and none in the last five.
This has sparked comparisons to Arteta’s early days as Arsenal manager, with the Spaniard struggling to elicit results from his side in his first few months in the job.
Asked about these comparisons in his press conference on Friday afternoon, Arteta claimed that there were two major difference between his situation and Amorim’s.
He said: “Ruben has much more experience than I had at the time, and there’s no Covid. He has much more options than I had It’s tough though.”
Indeed, Arteta had to contend with the coronavirus outbreak, which severely disrupted the football calendar, while it was also his first job in football management.
Meanwhile, Amorim has been coaching at the elite level since 2018, overseeing Casa Pia, Braga and Sporting before landing the United job.
However, Arteta didn’t hesitate to praise United’s new head coach, and the performances he’s extracted from his players in big games.
“Look at the big teams, how they’ve performed and the results they have got,” he said.
“I followed him a lot in Portugal and have been very impressed.”
Arteta and Amorim’s managerial statistics compared
While the pair of managers have experienced very different coaching paths, there are certainly similarities between what Arteta inherited at Arsenal and what Amorim has inherited at United.
United have a broken and ageing squad that needs rebuilding, whilst Arteta also had to revamp his ensemble when arriving at the Emirates.
Whether or not Amorim can successfully launch a full-scale rebuild in the same manner than what his Spanish counterpart has been able to do remains to be seen, although his statistical profile certainly makes for promising reading for United fans.
Amorim waxed lyrical about Arteta’s work at Arsenal back in 2023, and thus he could be looking to closely emulate the Gunners’ boss’ endeavours.
