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Mikel Arteta has said Ruben Amorim has already put his “fingerprints” on Manchester United but warned of the unpredictability of management as he tries to restore the club to former glories.
Arsenal host United at the Emirates on Wednesday and will hope to end Amorim’s three-game unbeaten run since he left Sporting CP to replace Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford.
Amorim has deployed a 3-5-2 system with United and Sunday’s 4-0 win over Everton was their biggest victory of the season.
Arteta said: “You can see his fingerprints in what he wants to do straight away. He’s been very clear with what he wants to do.
“What he did with Sporting was remarkable after so many years. Especially the way he did it and the way his teams are playing. It brings energy to a new club and the players which is always positive. But we have to focus on what we’re doing.”
Amorim takes the role aged 39, two years older than Arteta was when he became Arsenal boss in December 2019. Arteta instigated a radical overhaul of the playing staff, taking them back into the Champions League after a six-year absence as well as challenging for the Premier League in the past two seasons.
Asked what lessons there are from taking over a big club aged in his late-thirties as Amorim has, Arteta replied: “How unpredictable this job is. I jumped into a new job in the middle of the season in very special circumstances socially.
“Then we got hit by COVID. You can plan whatever you want but football brings different things and you have to deal with it. Take it as it comes and deal with it.”
Arsenal will make late calls on the fitness of Thomas Partey, Mikel Merino, Gabriel Magalhães and Riccardo Calafiori at a team meeting later on Tuesday.
Partey and Merino missed Sunday’s 5-2 win at West Ham with muscular and knee problems, respectively while Gabriel was substituted at half-time with a muscular issue.
Calafiori left the field at London Stadium on the hour mark as his minutes are managed having recently returned from a knee injury.