Jose Mourinho’s three-word instruction for Chelsea squad every time they played Arsenal
José Mourinho often got the better of Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal during his time at Chelsea and his message was always the same towards his players.
John Obi Mikel once revealed that Jose Mourinho’s tactic every time Chelsea played Arsenal was to “manhandle them”. Mourinho’s two stints at the head of the Blues, from 2004 to 2007 then from 2013 to 2015, saw him regularly compete against Arsène Wenger’s Gunners.
The match between two of the best Premier League clubs of the era often produced a clash of styles, with Wenger’s side playing the more attractive and creative football while Mourinho’s men imposed themselves physically and prided themselves on their defensive solidity.
Two players who clashed repeatedly during the London derby were midfielders Jack Wilshere and Mikel. Wilshere appeared on the latter’s The Obi One podcast earlier this year, where the Nigerian was asked about the Special One’s tactics in the weeks leading up to those heated encounters.
Mikel admitted: “Well, we knew our tactic was to manhandle them. You had to be tough, you had to be aggressive. That was the only way we could stop them because technically they were so good. Technically they were much better than us, there’s no doubt about that.”
“But we knew that if we could manhandle them and outplay them throughout the game, we would get results. We could beat them that way.
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“So for us, every time we played against Arsenal, it was simple: stay compact, get in front of them and make sure we don’t give their creative players space to express themselves.”
He added: “It was always difficult but we found a way of playing against them that was very effective and we never changed.”
That was certainly the case as Wenger faced Mourinho’s Chelsea 15 times in all competitions during those two spells in west London.
In those 15 attempts, Wenger’s only win against the Portuguese came in the 2015 Community Shield, while Mourinho has eight wins, five of which came in the Premier League alone.
Tensions flared at times, notably during the 2007 League Cup final, where Mikel was sent off along with Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Adebayor following an on-pitch brawl as Chelsea won the match 2–1. Wenger and Mourinho also had their share of altercations on the touchline, as well as back-and-forths during press conferences.
Even though today’s match is very different in terms of the styles of the two teams and their bitterness towards each other, they have been the two best teams in the league this season.
Top of the table Arsenal will make the short trip to Stamford Bridge on Sunday confident they can extend their lead over the Blues to nine points, while a win for Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea would reduce the difference to just three points in second place.
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