Mourinho & Wenger: A Tale of Two Cup Winners
The Premier League has become an especially feisty division lately. Blame Leicester City. They caught the lot of them sleeping at the wheel and the resulting wake-up call has seen pretty much every other title-relevant team snap to attention. There is a clear top six… but there are only four Champions League places. That is not a mathematical equation that’s gonna resolve itself anytime soon either – we’re in for an era where ‘top four’ becomes a proper threshold.
Missing out this last season were Arsenal and Manchester United. Both of whom also went on and won cup finals in the last game of their campaigns. Luckily for Jose Mourinho the Europa League triumph over Ajax, as pragmatically predictable as it was, ensures that his team claims a fifth English place in the Champions League - as well as a second-seed in the draw thanks to #coefficients. Arsene Wenger meanwhile… at least he’s got that FA Cup in the locker to stare down with pride all summer.
You can’t watch those celebrations and say the FA Cup, the oldest football competition in existence, doesn’t still mean something. For all the talk over recent years over top teams resting dudes and all that we just witnessed a great spectacle in which the semi-finalists all finished in the top five and we still had an underdog victory in the final.
Arsenal were absolutely ragged at the back, with suspension ruling out their best defender Laurent Koscielny, concussion ruling out their next best bet Shkodran Mustafi and then round that out with Gabriel Paulista also injured, plus Wenger’s cup-stuff rule of David Ospina starting over Petr Cech in goal. It meant that Rob Holding (signed from Bolton in preseason) was starting an FA Cup final alongside Per Mertesacker who had only played 37 minutes all season and hadn’t started a game in 13 months. Nacho Monreal, reliably, alongside them.
It was a juggling act that was tough to manage but really they didn’t have a choice. The best success that teams have had against Chelsea has been matching their back three and Arsenal’s late resurgence has come in that same shape. It’s what’s gotten the best out of Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey too. And despite all that worrying, despite Chelsea’s imperious league title (second highest points total ever)… this was a game that the Gunners hardly ever looked like faltering in from the very moment of the opening whistle.
Mertesacker was superb against Diego Costa, Xhaka and Ramsey messed with N’Golo Kante all day, Danny Welbeck tore Victor Moses to shreds and Alexis Sanchez did what he wanted to, scoring in the fifth minute for a lead that should’ve been added to which still lasted the rest of the half. On the other hand Chelsea looked like a team that had sunk a couple too many beers in their title celebrations. They just weren’t up to it, which is crazy considering how single-mindedly determined they’ve been all season (at least since getting thrashed by Arsenal early on). But for whatever reason they came in cold and Arsenal are too good to underestimate like that.
Shout out to Arsene Wenger. If this was his last game in charge then he leaves with a masterpiece, this was certainly better than the other recent FA Cup final wins over Hull City and Aston Villa, let’s be honest. They were written off here and they won still won it commandingly – Diego Costa’s equaliser could’ve been a morale killer yet they responded almost immediately with Aaron Ramsey’s winner. This was an Arsenal team – an Arsene Wenger team – that tactically outplayed their opposition, that showed up the hungrier more determined team and which responded triumphantly to conceding late on. All trends that are supposed to weaknesses of the Modern Arsenal. Who says the old dog can’t learn new tricks, aye?
Jose Mourinho’s latest trophy (either his second or third this season depending on who you ask) was the opposite. It was everything you expected of him as a manager. His team came out and played physical against a very young opposition, scored a deflected goal in the first half, settled for considerably less possession (hoofing long balls as a first option) and barely gave up a chance despite the gulf in ball control. Henrikh Mkhitaryan added to Paul Pogba’s opener straight after the break and the result was never therefore in doubt.
There’s a lot to be said for Mourinho’s killer instinct in finals. That whole thing about being a born winner and all was ridiculous (and for most of this season we saw a Man Utd team that didn’t seem to know how to turn one point into three) but come the biggest game of the season he comfortably found a way. He had to – this was a disastrous season without that Europa League trophy, especially after defaulting what was an open top four race a month ago. But he won so no worries. Wenger’s 19 year Champions League qualifying streak comes to an end despite his cup win as Mourinho’s team avoid a £20+ million loss in kit sponsorship by dodging a second straight year without UCL footy.
You know what though, it’s been fun watching both managers hit full-on vindictive mode. There’s Wenger finally snapping back at the Wenger Out muppets…
(AW: “I’m in a public job, I accept to be criticised and people don’t agree with me but once the game starts and you are a fan, you stand behind the team, that is what I have not accepted this season and I will never accept it. Outside of the game I never had any word with any journalist in 20 years when they criticised my decisions and it is the same with the fans but when a game starts you support your team. We have played some games in a hostile environment and I never accept that.”)
… and there’s Jose once again throwing his success in the face of his perceived enemies. “There are lots of poets in football but poets don't win many titles. We knew where we were better than them and we exploited their weaknesses.” Fair play too. This game was too important not to win, although he might wanna explain his poet comments to the United fans who grew up on Eric Cantona and Ryan Giggs and the rest. Also to Arsene Wenger, that old enemy, who just won a third FA Cup in four seasons.
The thing that Mourinho said best of all though was the thing about preferring to qualify for the Champions League with a trophy. Winning the Europa League further drives home that culture of success that is starting to be resurrected after two decades of it under Fergie. It shows a club moving forcefully in the right direction which is definitely gonna turn some heads in the transfer window. Arsenal don’t have UCL but they missed out on it with a lovely day out at Wembley. It might just be enough to keep Arsene and Alexis. It might just be enough to see this club really get serious about cutting some of their deadwood.
And that’s something that the teams that did find their way into the top four might wanna be wary of. Tottenham are the consensus second best team in the country now but second best doesn’t win trophies and if they put up another stinker in the Champions League like last time then what’s the point and where is this team going? Chelsea and Liverpool did as well as they did this time without the difficulties of juggling European footy, Chelsea with a really small squad that’s gonna struggle to handle that even if they do keep Diego Costa and Eden Hazard around and Liverpool with a shallow squad that’s got its share of injury-proners. Speaking of wasting their Champions League chance, Liverpool resting guys against Real Madrid last time they were there kinda blows the point of trying so hard to qualify, right?
At least Manchester City are getting a jump start on their next season, already signing Bernardo Silva and closing in on Ederson Moraes too. Pep Guardiola doesn’t want another season without a trophy – Arsenal and Man United had three between them and both finished below them.
Looks like for the next few seasons this is gonna be a regular shuffling of the deck. Two teams are gonna miss that top four and they’re gonna go hard to make sure they don’t miss it again. Four other teams are gonna feel satisfied in cracking the quartet and are then gonna need to go hard to make sure they don’t get overtaken in their own basking.
No coincidence there that the top four was the last thing left to play for long after the title and relegation spots were decided. Also no coincidence that the cups took on extra emphasis for the teams that missed the cut. It’s brilliant, this is what we want. They call it the Champions League for a reason and good teams need to be excluded now and then to keep it… feisty.
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