As Chelsea coasted to the Premier League title last season, Jose Mourinho never missed a chance to insult the Gunners boss Arsene Wenger. This season the tables have turned but Wenger has resisted the chance to put the boot into the Portugese bus conductor even though he has been as obnoxious as ever.
But that doesn’t mean that other Premiership bosses can’t do the job for him, and today it is being reported that the Southampton boss Ronald Koeman has basically blamed Chelsea’s defeat to the Saints on Mourinho’s tactical defending, rather than the Arsenal way of going for the jugular even if they take the lead.
“Chelsea prefer to defend when attacking is also an option,” Koeman said in today’s Mirror.
“Mourinho always chooses to defend. Even if his team goes 1-0 up, they would rather defend their lead than try to score more goals.
“Yet Arsenal can kill an opponent. That is why their victory against Manchester United was so impressive.
“Attacking-wise, they completely destroyed United. For 20 minutes, they played the most fantastic football, while Chelsea do the opposite thing.
“By defending, Chelsea give their opponent a chance to come back in the game. It was a shame that Mourinho was putting attention on the referee after we beat them.
“He wanted to have a penalty in the first half. But, in the first half at Stamford Bridge, Southampton should have had two penalties.”
Chelsea looked a shadow of last season’s team in that game against Southampton, while the Saints pressed them all over the pitch. That could have been the final nail in Mourinho’s coffin, with rumours that Abramovich is now trying to secure a top class replacement very quickly.
Boring Boring Maureen!