The layout of the technical areas in the Emirates Stadium could well have been made with today’s top of the table clash between Arsenal and Chelsea in mind. Although Jose Mourinho has been known to run down touchlines on occasions, it would still take a long knee slide to reach the opposing manager’s territory. This is probably for the best as the Arsene Wenger and the Special One have history. Here’s my take on a relationship best described as hate/hate…
Sticks and stones
2005-2006: Here’s the scenario. During Mourinho’s first stint in the Premier League when he was changing the landscape of English football, various journalists would ask Wenger about Chelsea and Wenger would perhaps naively respond with an answer. Unfortunately for the Arsenal boss, every time he mentioned the Gunner’s West London rivals some pen pusher at Stamford Bridge marked an entry into a file.
Cue Mourinho and his searing personal tirade against Wenger calling him a ‘voyeur’ and inferring that the Frenchman was ‘someone who likes to watch other people’, based entirely on comments made in press conferences. There are mind games and there are distasteful personal attacks. This was the latter and made the Ferguson/Wenger spats of old look like jovial banter… a Mourinho own goal.
ARSENE 1-0 JOSE
Mind Games
2013-2014: Although he is usually good value for money, Mourinho was boring everyone to death with his ‘little horse’ analogy during last season’s race to the Premier League title. Caught between two thoroughbreds in the shape of Liverpool and Man City, poor little Chelsea could not compete and were in need of a little milk to help them on their way.
Wenger was having none of it and said that such underplaying of one’s hand was basically a ‘fear of failure’. This jibe hit its spot and lit the blue touch paper provoking Mourinho into his infamous ‘specialist in failure’ rant. Unfortunately for the Portuguese tactician, the Frenchman went on to win his first trophy in nine years while he ended up pot-less.
ARSENE 2-0 JOSE
West London burial
2013-2014: Ironically, Arsene Wenger’s 1000th game as Arsenal boss was to be against Chelsea at the Bridge. All week prior to the game, the professorial Gallic gaffer was lauded from pillar to post by all and sundry. A football pioneer who revolutionised the English game with a brand of football that took on and beat Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United’s formidable machine, back in the 1990’s; The great manager of the 2004 Invincibles and so on and so forth.
Unfortunately, Mourinho had read the script, ripped it up and set it on fire before proceeding to dismantle Wenger’s team with embarrassing ease. Three goals in arrears and a man down within 20 farcical minutes of the game, made a mockery of all the praise and reverence that had been shown to the Gunners’ boss the week before. Six goals later and the humiliation was complete.
ARSENE 2-1 JOSE
Handbags at dawn
2014-2015: Last August, the two biggest of London’s football clubs clashed at Stamford Bridge. In a game that followed a familiar pattern, the Reds of Holloway retained the majority of possession but once again fall to the old rope-a-dope routine from the Blues of the King Road. In truth, the game was not that much of a spectacle with the main fireworks taking place off the pitch.
Early doors, Chelsea’s Gary Cahill made a ‘welcome to England’ tackle on Arsenal ‘new boy’ Alexis Sanchez in the vicinity of the Mourinho’s technical area. Wenger decided to walk towards his stricken superstar to gauge the seriousness of the situation but veered a little too close to Jose rectangular box. All hell broke loose as the two went nose to nose and Wenger gave his rival a firm shove in the chest, to reveal the frustration of coming second best too many times.
ARSENE 2-2 JOSE
Hoodoo Voodoo
2004 to Date: Arsene Wenger has had a dozen opportunities to vanquish his mortal enemy but has failed to do so on every single occasion. Whichever way you look at it, this damning statistic will have undoubtedly built some kind of mental block in the collective minds of the Arsenal manager, players and fans.
Even the law of averages cannot break the iron grip Mourinho seems to assert over his rival. Then again, Mourinho has never won at Newcastle’s St James’ Park but that doesn’t mean Alan Pardew is a better coach. What this strange quirk does do though is exaggerate any doubts in your self-belief before the game begins. Whether Wenger can break the spell later today, we will just have to wait and see.
ARSENE 2-3 JOSE
Watch the game live here
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