José Mourinho has lamented his side’s poor fortune after the home draws against Arsenal, Burnley and Stoke but a look at the statistics tells a different story
There was an amusing moment when José Mourinho spoke to the press after Manchester United’s draw against Arsenal as the manager attempted to suggest he was at a disadvantage compared with rivals because of the short period of time he has been at the club. “Look how long Mr Wenger has been with his team,” he began, predictably but reasonably enough. The next manager he mentioned was Mauricio Pochettino, however, who has not exactly been at Tottenham for a lifetime, and when the only other example he could think of was Jürgen Klopp, just over a year at Liverpool and top of the league, he quickly changed tack and began to claim it was the lack of European involvement that was enabling Liverpool and Chelsea to do so well.
Mourinho used to be the master of these media manipulation games, though there have been signs of late he is losing his touch. That was one, another came when he rose from his seat and departed with the throwaway line: “Finally, I lost against Arsène.” Or it would have been a throwaway line had he not felt the need to repeat it three times just in case anyone had not heard.
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