‘Absolutely amazing’ – Leeds United man pays Arsenal coach huge compliment before Elland Road meet

Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch believes Mikel Arteta is ‘the most underrated’ manager in the Premier League, the American has said during his pre-match press conference.

Speaking to reporters ahead of this weekend’s meeting between the two sides, Marsch described his opposite number as ‘underrated’ after the Gunners surged to the summit of the Premier League table, winning eight of their first nine league games this season.

“Mikel Arteta has done an absolutely amazing job. I think he's the most underrated manager in the league,” Marsch began. “With a young team, he's built this up to be really complex, stable, I think exciting to watch [team]. I think he's done an amazing job and it's taken him time, he took a lot of heat in the beginning but I think now you see the fruits of his labour and the fruits of their labour.”

Marsch remains confident that his team can earn a result on Sunday, however, stating that while it would be an uphill task, he feels his squad has the resources to cause problems for the Premier League’s table-toppers.

"Obviously for us, it can be a big boost for us to have a big result against an opponent like this,” Marsch said. “We are confident, we are confident that at Elland Road we can play the way we want. We believe that Arsenal is very good and we have to be very calculated with what our match plan is. But we want to be aggressive at the right moments. We still want to try to play our football we want to challenge them in certain ways. And we know we have to be at our best to have a chance against such an opponent.”

The pair have faced off in opposing dugouts once before, towards the end of last season as Luke Ayling’s red card consigned Leeds to what almost proved to be a fatal defeat. Leeds are winless in their last five matches, and have failed to defeat Arsenal in each of their last 12 meetings, their most recent victory over the Gunners coming at Highbury in 2003.