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| Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho nearly came to blows at Stamford Bridge on Oct. 5, 2014. |
Sunday marked the 13th time Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger has faced Chelsea manager José Mourinho. It also marked the 13th time Wenger has failed to defeat his Portuguese counterpart.
Chelsea’s performance during the 0-0 draw at the Emirates was trademark Mourinho. When the Blues visit Premier League clubs with the money and talent to make their afternoon miserable, they sit deeper in their own half, organized and compact, preferring to absorb pressure and unleash
furious counters from time to time.Quite an unlucky number. Except by this point, luck is clearly a small chapter of the futile story.
This is the second straight season they’ve ground out a scoreless point at Arsenal, and last fall, they managed 1-1 draws at both Manchester clubs.
“I know we live in a world where we have only winners and losers, but once a sport encourages teams who refuse to take the initiative, the sport is in danger,” Wenger said, regarding Chelsea’s tactics. In 2005.
Back then, Wenger’s sides were the perfect realization of his soccer tenets: free-flowing, attack-minded entertainers who played together and with an edge. Over his first decade with the club, Arsenal won three Premier League titles and four FA Cups and was the Champions League runner-up in 2006.
During that time, however, another club became a Premier League power thanks to brand new billionaire ownership. That club was Chelsea, and the manager that led it to prominence was Mourinho.
The two managers seem to be a study in contrast, but it’s probably more truthful to say they’re two sides of the same coin. Both are successful; Mourinho’s trophy cabinet is as loaded as Wenger’s. Both are impersonable; Mourinho is just more confrontational about it.
Both are also arrogant, but Wenger is more stubborn about it. And therein lies a key difference.
Mourinho has proven to be a master tactician, but unlike Wenger, his tactics include knowing when to abandon them. He’s never been ashamed to muddy up a game and grind out a result to overcome talent gaps, or injuries, or hostile environments. While he’s never acknowledged the strategy publicly, he’s never really mounted more than a feeble defense of it, either.
On the other hand, while Wenger has also proven to be a mastermind of the game, he’s acquired a reputation as being stubborn in his ways. When challenged on this point, he’s frequently dug his heels deeper into the pitch.
That’s a big reason why Arsenal’s win at Manchester City this past January came as such a shock. After a series of road bludgeonings against the Premier League’s elite, Wenger’s side opted to dig its heels into the Etihad pitch and defend resolutely, rather than attack recklessly.
In essence, the Frenchman managed the match like Mourinho.
Of course, the players are just as critical, and the truth is, Wenger is only now starting to play in the same league as Mourinho in that regard.
Arsenal spent most of the past decade paying off debts accrued by building and moving into Emirates Stadium, and as such, it wasn’t able to compete in the transfer market with richer clubs — like Chelsea. The league began sprinting away from the development-oriented team composition that Wenger prefers, and money began to talk more than it ever had in the century-and-a-half history of soccer.
At least in part, that explains why Arsenal has failed to score in all five games against Chelsea since Mourinho returned to the Premier League in 2013. As good as Wenger is at managing egos and approach, there has been a disparity in terms of the quality of the players on the pitch.
That wasn’t the case during Mourinho’s first spell at Chelsea in the mid-2000s. No, those games were largely characterized by the Blues’ grit, whether it was coming from behind twice to earn a point in December 2004, or scoring six minutes from time to preserve Mourinho’s then-spotless league record at Stamford Bridge in December 2006, or survivinga hyper-violent League Cup final to lift the trophy in February 2007.
Wenger took notice. He began to comment on Mourinho and his behavior rather frequently, and Mourinho frequently responded with his renowned mind games. Their effectiveness is up for debate, but they reflect a stoic truth: The self-appointed “Special One” believes his side can win every single game it plays, and his players refuse to mortgage that belief until the final whistle blows.
Besides, Mourinho owns the ultimate mind game over Wenger. Seven wins. Six draws. Zero losses.
So it begs the question: Will Arsène Wenger ever break through and beat José Mourinho? If Arsenal continues to buy elite talent, and if Wenger continues trending toward pragmatism and flexibility, it’s not difficult to envision.
But if he doesn’t, he’ll just continue to trade barbs with the Chelsea boss. If history taught us anything, that’s all they’ll trade.
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