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Rivaling ideologies to go head-to-head as Chelsea face Arsenal

By on September 18, 2015

Jose Mourinho is not used to losing. In five full seasons as a Premier League manager, split between his two tenures at Chelsea, he has only lost little more than ten percent of his matches.  Moreover, he’s not used to losing at home. Heading into the current Premier League season, Mourinho had managed ninety-nine games at Stamford Bridge and lost just one. Through the means of ruthlessly effective counter-attacking football, Mourinho used the traditionally physical aspect of the English game to his own ends.

In his first tenure at Chelsea, Mourinho was an outsider coming into the Premier League, the first Portuguese manager since the league’s rebranding in 1992 in a landscape dominated by managers from the home nations (still, Andre Villas Boas is the only other Portuguese manager to have plied his trade in the Premier League). He further isolated himself by immediately labeling himself, “the special one,” before having played a single match on English soil.

His counter-attacking style of play, the antithesis of tiki-taka, made him catch the eye perhaps even more than his persona. Not to mention the two Premier League titles and FA Cup trophy that followed. Chelsea toppled Arsenal to take the title of England’s best team and The Gunners have never recovered. Mourinho is particularly averse to losing to Arsenal and heading into the current season, Mourinho had met Chelsea’s London rivals fourteen times and hadn’t lost.

Along the way, he created a fierce and very personal battle with Arsene Wenger. Mourinho revels in the unconventional; creating a tense locker-room atmosphere, never afraid to throw anybody under the bus for the sake of the cause. He’s proud of his win record at home and happily pointed out in August that “it is not normal.”

Their record against Arsenal, the closest thing to stable, possession-oriented Spanish-esque team in the Premier League, had been proof of Mourinho’s mastery. It’s the closest thing to an ideology rivalry for Mourinho and until Arsenal beat Chelsea 1-0 in the Community Shield last month, The Blues dominated it.

Yet Chelsea’s loss was a sign of things to come. Already, just five matches into the league season Chelsea have lost on three occasions. Mourinho has never managed a club past his third season in charge, but as Chelsea’s tough start to the season continues, it’s the losses that have made their recent slump stand out. It has been a very human downfall for The Special One.

As such, he has been forced to cast aside his great big show in hope of realigning Chelsea’s season as The Blues welcome none other than Arsenal to Stamford Bridge tomorrow. It’s a stark contrast to the manager who would use every possible puppet to intimidate his opposition manager just a few months ago. Then again, a triumph in the Premier League’s biggest ideology rivalry would give Chelsea the confidence they need to turn around their season.

“I just go in the direction of the match on Saturday,” Mourinho said, per The Guardian. “It’s a match that I want to isolate from every possible context. It doesn’t matter our fantastic record against Arsenal; it doesn’t matter that in seven matches in the Premier League, they don’t beat Chelsea; it doesn’t matter they beat us in the Community Shield. It’s a match that we want to win.”

He has even agreed to shake Wenger’s hand.

However, Arsenal gladly take the match as a chance to kick Chelsea while they are down. Mourinho’s men have been so attuned to pain that Arsenal, having dealt with so much disappointment over the past decade, relish a chance to rub salt in Mourinho’s wounds.

Photo credit: Tsutomu Takasu, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.