After Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool on Sunday, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher compared Mikel Arteta’s tactical approach with that of Jose Mourinho.
It’s a comparison that the Arsenal manager had no strong opinion on when he was asked about it at his press conference ahead of the EFL Cup tie with Preston tomorrow night.
Questioned by James (Gunnerblog) about parallels between himself and the Portuguese, Arteta said, “I don’t talk about myself. That’s his job to talk about others, so I let him give his opinion.
“I take it as an opinion. I don’t like myself being compared to anybody, because I’m myself.
“I don’t do things because other people are doing things. I do things that I believe are the best for the players and for the team to get a success, and play the way we want to play.
“That’s it.”
Arteta did reveal there is a connection between them though, going back to his time at Barcelona.
“I know him since I was 15 years old,” he said. “He coached me. He was in Barcelona.
“He’s won 26, 28 titles. So he is someone to really admire the way he’s done it, the way he’s changed the culture in clubs, the way he’s done it in different countries.”
And as he approaches his five year anniversary at Arsenal, Arteta was asked if he felt ‘unsackable’ in his job while others, like Erik ten Hag, have fallen by the wayside – and also touched on the importance of taking this competition seriously.
“No, nobody’s unsackable,” he replied. “We are here to win football matches. Never forget that.
“I have continued to do my job the best possible way and again football matches are the most important thing and you have to win many of those to keep the job.
“It [EFL CUP] is important because it keeps everybody alive, you maintain the winning habit which is really, really important and you show that you care about every competition regardless of what you play.
“You have to compete for every match, you are in or you are out, the margins are so small and tomorrow we’re going to face a really tough opponent.”
Let’s be honest. It is an absolutely dogshit option from player-turned-meme-merchant Jamie Carragher. A man who seemingly has limitless confidence since seen spitting at young fans in cars. Confidence now empowered by sky and tnt to ditch the analysis and focus on chatting shit to rile up rival fans. Arsenal have been without at least one of their best players in every big game this season. Due to injuries on international duty and appalling refereeing on decisions that will never been seen again this season. So all this clown can come up with when an Arsenal team drops a bit… Read more »
A response measured with the precision of an Ode through ball. Well said myrtle.
I thought Ode was out
Best post of the week
The comparison is based on our last game therefore not foolish. However Mourinho never gave an identity to a team like Arteta did.
Mourinho did give identity to his teams, it’s just that the identity was wankish and defensive. Arteta’s identity is much more positive IMO, although you could say both tapped into the us against them mindset.
As a class of human they seem pretty different and comparing based on our last game takes away the context of game state and our make shift back 4 that has been extensively discussed by many.
Mourinho press conferences were all about him. The idiot press flocked to watch the master clown bring the idea into disrepute. Glad he is abroad making them yawn.
Hard to see how a comparison based on ONE GAME doesn’t qualify as foolish. A game that ended without a single first choice defender left standing.
As human beings, they’re totally different. But from a “shit house your way to a result” perspective, I do see it. Let’s be honest, peak Mourinho was a beast. He was able to win no matter what. Remember he won the league against “that” barca team. He seems to be the shittiest of shitty people, but they aren’t being compared as people. As managers who know how to get results, I think it’s fair. And flattering.
I don’t think Carra meant it in a positive way at all.
He didn’t. But he’s an idiot.
A vile beast? I’ll give you that 🙂
Jamie Carragher is a sad, twisted man. The root cause of his deep-seated mental problems is being paired for years on Sky with Gary Neville, who played for a much more successful team than he did and made sure he pointed that out as often as possible.
All those years of repeated knife-twisting have taken their toll, leaving him as a worn out husk, like a sort of punditry version of Gollum.
It’s very simple. Jose Mourinho is an absolute sociopathic bastard who has managed 3 of the most objectionable football clubs on Earth (Spurs, Man Utd and Chelsea). Mikel Arteta is not and currently manages by far the greatest team the world has ever seen. No resemblance at all.
Mourinho didn’t just manage the most objectionable clubs on earth – and don’t forget Real Madrid when you list them – he was the keystone to Chelsea’s becoming so objectionable in the first place. You might say his utterly objectionable aura imprinted itself on the club and never left it since.
I find your objective analysis of Mourinho’s deeply objectionable objectionability to be thoroughly unobjectionable.
Surely you meant objectionableness as there’s no such word as objectionability. Objectively speaking that is. Otherwise no further objection.
What they have in common is a commitment to winning. What they don’t have in common is everything else. The sad thing for me is that Carragher managed to touch a nerve and launch a #narrative to follow up on #DarkArts which also became a #narrative. Here we are all stalking about him talking about it. As much as I often admire James McNicholas, he’s playing right into those bastards hands by writing a column about it on the Athletic. Why did you do it James!! Don’t give them air!!