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Furious Arsenal fans have labelled the decision to award Ruben Amorim the Premier League's Manager of the Month over Mikel Arteta as 'ridiculous' and 'unfair'.
Amorim clinched the award after his Manchester United side claimed hard-fought victories against Sunderland, Liverpool and Brighton during the month of October.
The 40-year-old fought off competition from Arteta, whose side are currently six points clear at the top of the league, as well as Andoni Iraola, who has Bournemouth sitting pretty in fifth place.
It is the first time the Portuguese coach has won the award since taking the Old Trafford hotseat last November, and he paid tribute to his players and staff in an address today.
Amorim said: 'I think they deserve full credit for this award because, in the end, the manager that wins this kind of award is not the best team, but the team that performs maybe better during this month.'
But not all fans believe he or his staff are the rightful recipients of the award - and many of them have taken to social media to lambast the award.
Ruben Amorim has won his first Manager of the Month award since arriving in Manchester
Amorim pipped Mikel Arteta to the award despite Arsenal being clear at the top of the league
One wrote on X: 'This is ridiculous.... Arsenal won all 3 without conceding, whilst navigating CL and Carabao games too, whilst they aren’t considered in the award.
'The fact Amorim only had 3 games to navigate... shud automatically give it to arteta!'
A second fan, armed with laughing emojis, added: 'We won every single game we played. We didn’t concede a single goal. We barely even conceded a shot on goal.
'Yet Ruben Amorim wins manager of the month ahead of Mikel Arteta.'
A third posted: 'I always complain about how unfairly treated Man United is but I think Arteta deserved this award more than Amorim.'
Such is the discourse around the award that some supporters have begun conjuring up their own theories as to why Arteta may have been subbed.
One even floated the idea that the Arsenal boss is 'suffering from Pep syndrome' by being 'too good, too often'.
They added: 'Amorim’s form feels like a surprise; Arsenal’s feels like the norm.'
Fans online have furiously criticised the decision to give Amorim the award ahead of Arteta
Another fan seemed to agree with that line of thought when attempting to calm an enraged Arsenal fan down online.
The supporter, writing in response to criticism of awarding Amorim the award, wrote: 'You have to take into account "expectation". United have been so poor under Amorim previously that them even winning 2 games in a row was a big deal.
'Where as expectations of Arsenal and Arteta are very high so to them they will see Arteta as performing to expectation and Amorim as over performing.'
Other Gunners fans online wrote that they had deliberately sabotaged the voting to due a supposed 'curse' placed on managers who win the monthly award.
Some superstitious supporters believe that winning the award may actually come with its bad luck including poor form, barren spells in front of goal or an increased risk of injury.
Arteta was asked about the so-called curse when given the award in March 2024.
Some supporters tried to claim Arteta is being judged to a higher expectation than Amorim
Amorim overseen impressive victories during October including a dramatic 2-1 win at Anfield
'I won it [the award] and then we won many games, so that superstition is gone,' the Spaniard said at the time.
Amorim appeared not to be concerned with any curses today, as he was all smiles when standing with United forward Bryan Mbuemo for a photoshoot.
The Cameroonian international was awarded the Premier League's Player of the Month for October.
The prizes come as recognition for United's impressive performances last month, particularly for their impressive 2-1 victory over Liverpool at Anfield.
They also put four goals past Brighton in a thrilling victory, as well as comfortably dispatching the Black Cats at Old Trafford.
