The Arsenal model United must follow under Amorim

In preparing for Arsenal's fixture against Manchester United, Mikel Arteta faces a problem. He must try to anticipate what Ruben Amorim might do, which is difficult when the United squad are still in the early stages of adapting to the manager’s approach.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

The Portuguese can’t yet apply his full principles, which creates the potential for a lot of variables. That is the one advantage Amorim has in these first months of his reign.

It is just as well for Arteta, then, that he has finally been able to apply his own principles in full. Arsenal have so swiftly switched from a long period in which they had to be extremely pragmatic, to one where the goals are now flowing. The return of Martin Odegaard is obviously important, but it’s also as if the entire squad were straining to rediscover their true selves.

After so much talk of Arteta becoming Jose Mourinho and how he’d changed the profile of the squad, this is the real Arsenal. As shown in the five-goal wins at Sporting and West Ham, it’s a team coming at you from all angles, who are capable of going on the kind of winning run they need to challenge Premier League leaders Liverpool. This is Arteta football as he envisioned it.

That very reversion informs one of the undercurrents to this fixture. The post-Ferguson history of Manchester United is really one of finding a modern ideology. That has ironically involved a search that is much more traditional, in that it’s still about finding a coach that can imbue such principles.

Although many at Old Trafford would bristle at this, United have been looking for their own Arteta. There have been a few potential candidates from the club’s vast pool of “legends”, not least Ruud van Nistelrooy and Michael Carrick. Really, though, roles at huge clubs like this have to involve a much greater scope than just a prior association. It’s about having the personality for the challenge, so that the most sophisticated coaching can be applied.

That makes it instructive that this is the first time that those outside Manchester United feel they have got it right. Amorim is one of those where rival coaches nod their heads in approval. There is a real admiration.