Arsene Wenger has always maintained that it is extremely important for Arsenal to play beautiful attractive football that will entertain the fans. He has also emphasised that he doesn’t worry too much about opposing teams tactics and sticks to playing The Arsenal Way, then winning will come naturally. It has been exciting to watch over the years but it is obviously detrimental to actually winning games, according to the man that has played under both Mourinho and Wenger for many years, Petr Cech.
Jose Mourinho, on the other hand, plays his team according to the opposition. Parking the bus when necessary or attacking from the start if he believes that is the right way to get something from the game. As Petr described it: “When he [Mourinho] arrived at Chelsea from Porto, he brought the main thing: he came from a club where it was not acceptable to him to finish second of the championship.
“He brought the same spirit in Chelsea. He thinks only about victory, whatever the price.
“He hates draws. If we returned to the dressing room with a draw, it was known that he would not be satisfied.
“On the other hand, he also wanted be able to keep a 1-0 or beat a team 5-0 if possible. No matter how, Mourinho wants the result.
“The philosophy at Arsenal is completely opposed to this: it is not win at all costs but we want to win with a good way of playing. This is beginning to change in our approach.”
It is good that Cech thinks that Wenger is changing his philosophy, but it doesn’t seem to working so far this season. In fact the players don’t seem to know what their roles are any more, or simply don’t agree with the new approach. But could Wenger really become a ruthless winner like Mourinho after all this time of playing pretty football?
Darren N.