Arsenal may have been severely embarrassed by Tottenham in the North London Derby, but there is still hope that we can make the Top Four positions if we manage to beat Jose Mourinho’s Man United side next weekend. The fact is that Wenger has an awful record against the ‘Special One’ in the League, having never beaten him at all, but surely this must be his best chance yet.
United have been decimated by injuries, with Ibrahamovic, Marcos Rojo, Chris Smalling, Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Phil Jones being joined by Luke Shaw and Eric Bailly in the treatment room this weekend. Not only that, but Arsenal have a full week to prepare for the game, while United have to face Celta Vigo in the Europa League semi-final on Thursday, so will be expected to rest some of his stars against Arsenal to prepare for the second leg a week later.
As Mourinho said before the Manchester derby: “If we beat Celta Vigo, we go to the final and, yes, it is important to us to play Champions League, but this club wants trophies.
“We cannot give the club the Premier League. We have a 25 per cent chance to win the Europa League.
“I will rotate players again to give some players a chance again. In terms of expectation, it is better to go into a derby with one point difference rather than four.”
So with Mourinho rotating the players that are not injured, surely United will have an extremely weakened (or tired) team at the Emirates next Sunday. Surely if Wenger can’t beat him this time, then he surely never will….
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