Arsene Wenger has said he left Arsenal in a strong position despite the club's difficulties this season and has backed Mikel Arteta to be a success as manager.

Sources have told ESPN Arteta is expected to be announced Arsenal's new boss following Unai Emery's sacking as manager.

And Wenger, who left the club after 22 years in May 2018, believes Arteta has the ability to succeed at Arsenal if he takes over from caretaker Freddie Ljungberg.

"I am an Arsenal supporter. And at the moment I support the manager in charge and the manager in charge is Ljungberg. When Arteta will be in charge I will support Arteta," Wenger told Sky Sports.

"He [Arteta] is intelligent, he has passion, he has knowledge, but Ljungberg [does] as well.

"I believe that Arteta has certainly a great future, he has certainly learned a lot in his first position as an assistant coach and after that as well he will have to deal with the fact that he has no experience at that level and he will have to get surrounded well."

Emery replaced Wenger in 2018 but was sacked in November after the club's worst start to a league season in almost 30 years.

Arsenal are 10th, seven points off the top four, but Wenger -- who finished sixth in his final season in charge -- insists he is not to blame for the club's predicament.

"When I left the club was in a very strong financial position and they bought many players in-between -- they have not all worked out," Wenger added.

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"I believe that it's not a question of time. The change can be very efficient very quickly, it's just about the right decision-making and that's all that it's about in football, it's about good players.

"We speak about the success of Liverpool, of course they have a great manager, but you have to say as well that in the last three-four years, they bought the right players."