Jose Mourinho is set to take on Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal on Sunday with his Manchester United side, and their appears to be some strange mind-games going down.
The Portuguese tactician claims that he will seemingly weaken his starting XI as he looks to prioritise the Europa League competition, in which his side hold a 1-0 advantage going into their home leg.
Mourinho does however hold a club-record 25 match unbeaten streak in the Premier League, and considering his long-standing rivalry with Arsene Wenger, who he has refused to shake hands with on more than one occasions, surely he will not be setting his team up to lose.
The Red Devils boss also chose to leave Anthony Martial out of his starting line-up in the opening leg of the Europa League on Thursday, which will mean he must have decided that this key player could be used against Arsenal instead, which also tells me he is not wholly concentrating his team’s efforts on the EL.
Winning the European competition should take priority at this stage in the campaign, with two more wins in the tournament granting them entry to next season’s Champions League competition, as well as the European Super Cup.
Priority on the Europa League does make sense, but I’m not giving into the idea that he is willing to make wholesale changes as claimed, and he will have a strong side out to take us on, I assure you.
Wenger needs to ignore any whispers (or shouts) coming from our rival camp, and we need to be at our best to make sure we still have a shot of making the top-four, as a draw would lead me to give up on such a shot.
Will Mourinho really rest his key men? Is it pure mind games?
Pat J