Mikel Arteta admits he’s been impressed by the work Ruben Amorim has done so far at Manchester United, despite the former Sporting CP boss losing six of his first 12 matches in charge.

Amorim was appointed as United’s first-ever head coach in November, replacing Erik ten Hag after the Dutchman failed to build on winning last season’s FA Cup final against neighbourhood rivals Manchester City.

Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Premier League leaders Liverpool was evidence that Amorim may be getting his ideas across to United’s players, but their performance levels have been widely fluctuating amid a glut of poor decision-making and individual mistakes.

As for Arsenal, they haven’t been at their free-flowing best for a while – injuries to key personnel affecting Arteta’s charges – and head into a blockbuster FA Cup third round tie with United fresh off the back of a 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final clash.

But it was Amorim’s start at Old Trafford that Arteta was soon pressed about in his latest press conference, with the Spaniard opting for kindness in his response.

“When you look especially at the big teams and the results he got and how they performed, very impressive,” Arteta said of his Portuguese counterpart. “I know him well. I followed him a lot when he was in Portugal and there is a big reason he is where he is at the moment. He fully deserves to be there.”

Elaborating on the difficulties of taking over a new club mid-season, Arteta continued: “Every manager when he gets appointed is for a reason. The reasons can be different. Sometimes it is just to improve a football team, to get more performance out of certain players and sometimes it is to transform a football club. That is a totally different dimension of a job.

“If I have to relate to mine it was more towards that than the previous one that I mentioned.”

Arteta, who got one over on Amorim in December when Arsenal beat United 2-0 in the Premier League, would then speak about the need for the home supporters to get behind his players, particularly as United will be an 8,000-strong travelling contingent to north London.

“Yeah, we have to be more noisy, more on the front foot certainly than them,” Arteta remarked. “It’s a special occasion to create that atmosphere is beautiful, beautiful football atmosphere, let’s make it our own.”