da lvbet： No league has ever had the depth or quality of managers as the Premier League does in 2016/17. English football possesses far beyond its fair share of the world’s greatest managers this season. Rafael Benitez is managing a Championship club, just to emphasise the point.
da betsson： Two of the most experienced, grizzled managers of the bunch reignite their bitter, never-ending rivalry this weekend. Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger have a lengthy back catalogue of petty media comments and heated touchline exchanges.
This time representing Manchester United, Mourinho is unlikely to change his approach to his French counterpart. It is over a decade since Mourinho and Wenger first exchanged a frozen handshake; their rivalry has grown into one of the running soap operas of European football.
Only 11 games into the Premier League season, Manchester United are six points adrift of their rivals. The managerial theatre, that will be endlessly promoted by Sky Sports and see the dugouts given more screen time than the game itself, is mildly entertaining, but it does distract from the relative failings of Wenger and Mourinho.
Since their early jousts, the footballing landscape has changed. It’s constantly evolving, yet both have been criticised for failing to adapt. Stuck in their ways, maybe, it has been the downfall of each manager in recent years.
The line, then, is between sticking to your instincts and being too stubborn. Mourinho and Wenger have both slipped into the realm of stubbornness too frequently. Tactically, Wenger has shown advances this season, while Mourinho’s decision making has been quizzical at times.
Manchester United have been stifled by an imbalance in their team, with Mourinho abandoning many of the factors that made him such a success. Arsenal, on the other hand, have looked their best for many, many years.
A rivalry with a different backdrop could be about to take a new turn. Arsenal are unbeaten since the opening day of the Premier League season and face a Mourinho team who have been uninspiring for the majority of the campaign so far.
Their stroll to a 3-1 victory against Swansea could lighten hopes around Old Trafford, but the poor prior did not reflect a team capable of troubling an in-form Arsenal side. The absence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic only weakens Mourinho’s position as we open the book onto the latest chapter of the rivalry.
Goal scoring difficulties have been one of many issues for Manchester United this season and, despite his heroics last term, Marcus Rashford carries a burden into this game against Arsenal’s most solid centre-back pairing in recent memory.
Manchester United, regardless of the pre-season expectations, are in another season of rebuilding. This will be Mourinho’s fall-back, but it does – for perhaps the first time – give Wenger the upper hand.
Wenger has seldom faced Mourinho with his team in better form, looking fluid in attack and relatively solid defensively. Mourinho’s big game plans are based on a leak-proof defence; he has no such luxury at the moment, though, and this will force the game to take a different pattern from the majority of other clashes between the two managers.
Whatever the outcome, this game will have reverberations around the footballing world. The latest instalment in an historic rivalry is anticipated like little else in sport. Defeat for Arsenal will raise further questions about Wenger ever beating Mourinho, while a significant away victory for the Gunners will have so many asking if Mourinho really is special anymore.
At this time of the season, the result itself cannot carry too much weight for this campaign alone. There are greater things to be garnered from this game, change is afoot in the Premier League. A new generation of managers and increased financial parity have made the Premier League a more interesting top flight, with a greater level of competitiveness.
Adaptation is spoken about with players more than managers it seems. The need for a player to change their approach in certain situations or learn a role is well-documented, but managers need to understand a developing trend in the sport just as much.
Managers take the responsibility of a whole team, Mourinho and Wenger have been culpable on occasion for their team’s downfall. Curious selections or sheer stubbornness to their tried and understandably trusted decisions have damned their teams.
All people in positions of such power will make mistakes, but the repetition of errors is what infuriates others. Both Mourinho and Wenger must take this fixture as an opportunity to prove that they will not make the sort of mistakes that have cost them previously.
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