It is not easy for anyone connected with Arsenal Football Club to rise above the taunts and mind games of Jose Mourinho, but it is crucially important the the players and manager do their best to ignore any little digs the Chelsea boss aims in our direction between now and kick off at Stamford Bridge tomorrow.
Us fans can get as angry as we like of course, but you know that the only reason for Maureen to say things is a calculated plot to put the Gunners off our stride. In fact, the Prof and his players should take it as a compliment, because it shows that the Portuguese coach sees Arsenal as a real threat.
The problem is, however, that Maureen is pretty good at the mind games and does not care how much grief he gets in the press for his lack of respect, which was quite fervent after his `specialist in failure` jibe last season. And given the chance to apologise for that this weeks, as reported by The Mirror, the Chelsea boss suggested that it is him who should have received an apology first.
He said, “What I said was a consequence of something. It wasn’t a deliberate first option to say something.
“I didn’t get an apology, so I don’t apologise. My feeling about it is, we get over it, forget it and move forward without thinking about what happened.
“There is no need to apologise. Intelligent football people don’t need that. So we finish it and move on.”
But simply regurgitating an old slur was never going to be good enough for him, especially after we did win something last season while Chelsea finished empty handed. So, as revealed by the Daily Mail, Moron-io has decided to try using the Cesc Fabregas saga to get under our skin.
He said of the former Arsenal captain, “I think he loves Chelsea already. He’s so happy: the way he plays, the way he’s a member of the squad, the way he lives in this little blue village. It is like he’s here for a long time.
“If you ask him now if he regrets the move, I’m sure he’d say no. If you ask him if he’d choose a different option, he’d say no. And if you ask him where he thinks he’ll be in five years, he’d say he sees himself here in five years. He is Chelsea.”
I think the mind games worked on us last year, especially as it was Wenger’s 1000th Gunners game at Stamford Bridge. Wenger and the players were so desperate to ram the words down his throat that we were reckless. We must treat tomorrow’s game as any other and be professional. We have lots of injuries and should be more than happy with a point, so let’s stay calm and be professional.