FORGET Mourinho-ho-ho, the Special One is more like the Grinch for Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal face Chelsea on Monday night knowing a win would mean they’re top on Christmas Day, but Wenger’s stats against Mourinho don’t look promising...The Gunners boss is probably contemplating just what he needs to do to get the better of his old adversary.
Le Professeur has gone toe-to-toe with Portuguese on nine occasions and he is still yet to taste victory against Jose.
The Chelsea gaffer has the fashion edge off the field, and thus far he has had the tactical edge on it as well.
In total Wenger’s Arsenal record against Mourinho looks like this:
Played: 9; Won: 0; Drawn: 4; Lost: 5; Scored: 6; Conceded: 13.
It’s pretty disastrous. But this time when they meet on Monday, it’s much more important.
Not just because there are whispers in the offices and the pubs up and down the country, that Arsenal’s annual collapse is just around the corner.
The Gunners are winless in their last three games.
Olivier Giroud has just one goal in his last 13 hours and 45 minutes of football.
They’ve just lost two massive fixtures on the spin — the Champions League defeat to Napoli which cost them top spot and the 6-3 annihilation at the Etihad Stadium against Man City.
Throw in the fact that dropped points on Monday would leave the door open for Liverpool to top the table on Christmas Day, and the psychological effect that could have on Wenger’s team is a concern.
The good news for Arsenal is that Chelsea are desperate for goals themselves.
In their last three games Mourinho’s men have had a whopping total of 56 shots on goal, with 70 per cent of them going off target.
Combined Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba have contributed just five goals this season.
Gary Hooper cost Norwich just £5million and he has four goals himself!
Chelsea have failed to score in 38 per cent of their away games this season.
The stats suggest that Chelsea will struggle to score, Arsenal will be wanting to avoid defeat at all costs and Mourinho has the edge over Wenger.
So on that basis we’re sitting on the fence, and plumping for either a 0-0 draw at 9/1 or the 1-1 draw at 6/1.
On our tipping form that probably means it’ll be another six-goal thriller so it’s a win-win either way.
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