Not man Arsenal fans would have heard of Aitor Karanka before this week but the up-and-coming Middlesbrough boss learned his trade under Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid. Jose’s Chelsea side’s have always had the upper hand over Arsene Wenger, so Karanka was asked if he’d asked his old boss for tips on how to win at the Emirates.
He said: “No, because in the same way as against Manchester City, it’s easy to analyse them. It’s difficult to play against them, but it’s easy to analyse.
“It’s going to be a massive game because everybody is expecting that we can beat them. Obviously we can beat them because we played very well against Liverpool and we beat Manchester City.
“But if we go there thinking it’s going to be easy and we can beat them without playing our best, we could make a big, big mistake.”
Karanka has never faced Arsenal before, but it was the same case before Boro dismissed Pellegrini’s Man City in the last round. The Boro boss just believes it is part of his learning process. “You have to learn from these kind of managers because you know the experience he has. I am starting my career and I have to learn always from managers who have a lot of experience.
“Imagine a manager who is starting like me playing against a manager like Wenger, who has been in charge for almost 20 years at Arsenal – it’s amazing.
“I have to learn from everybody and I have to learn from the best.”
Karanka certainly seems to have already learned a lot and is putting it to good use right now. Let’s all hope he learns how to deal with a big defeat on Sunday!