CHELSEA V ARSENAL; Mourinho Hails Wenger

 

As Arsenal visit to Stamford Bridge today, which will eventually mark Wenger’s 1 000th game in charge of emirate team, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho yesterday took another sly dig at him (Arsene Wenger), saying he would like to emulate Wenger’s longevity. “I admire him and I admire Arsenal,” the Portuguese told reporters.

Just last month, Mourinho called him a “specialist in failure” .
Mourinho could not resist a sting in the tail to the praise for a manager whose side have not won a trophy since 2005. “It is not possible to have 1 000 matches unless the club is also a fantastic club in the way they support their manager, especially in the bad moments and especially when the bad moments were quite a lot,” he said.

“The tribute is to say that I believe any one of us (managers) would love to have the same privilege with our clubs. Could, I stay for 1 000 games? I would like to, but it’s very difficult.

“It’s even more difficult in modern football. If I can reach 500 with Chelsea it would be fantastic.”

Mourinho is in his second spell at Chelsea, returning last June after a first stint that began in 2004 and ended in 2007 following fallout with billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich.

As both team set to clash today, Arsenal are expected to line up in the following 4-3-3 formation:

Szczesny; Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arteta (c), Cazorla; Rosicky, Giroud, Podolski.

Substitutues: Fabianski, Vermaelen, Jenkinson, Flamini, Kallstrom, Gnabry, Sanogo.

Chelsea are expected to line up in the following 4-2-3-1 formation:

1 Petr Cech; 2 Branislav Ivanovic, 24 Gary Cahill, 26 John Terry (c), 28 Cesar Azpilicueta; 4 David Luiz, 21 Nemanja Matic; 14 Andre Schurrle, 11 Oscar, 17 Eden Hazard; 29 Samuel Eto'o.

Substitutes: 23 Mark Schwarzer, 33 Tomas Kalas, 12 John Mikel Obi, 8 Frank Lampard, 15 Mohamed Salah, 19Demba Ba, 9 Fernando Torres.

The referee is Andre Marriner.