MOURINHO A SPECIALIST IN VICTORY
Mkhitaryan 51 IT hardly seems the hallmark of a managerial genius, it will not have the purists purring, it was not a work of footballing art. Send on the big fella, send in a few high diagonal balls as the opposition retreat and there is every chance a winner will skid in off Marouane Fellaini’s magnificent head.
Hey presto, yet hardly the work of a magician.
No, but the work of someone peerless at finding results, who will probably finish the season with a points tally that would, in a normal season, contend for the title.
Although you might watch some of Jose Mourinho’s football with a shrug, you cannot shrug at the practical outcomes. Should Manchester United win their remaining matches against Brighton, West Ham and Watford, they will finish with 86 points – good enough to win the title in four of the previous nine seasons.
Champions League football is secured for next term and second place – ahead of Liverpool and the celebrated
Spurs – is almost certain.
No wonder he gets the hump now and again.
If United win the
FA Cup on May 19, it will be impossible for even those most indifferent to his functional approach to deny Mourinho credit.
In the last two months, he has despatched Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal, not to mention Spurs in the FA Cup.
The odd aberration, against Sevilla and West Brom, count against him but he comes up with a way to chisel out victories.
This was a half-paced, half-hearted, half-baked, halfmeaningless pale imitation of a Manchester United-arsenal game.
Perhaps its rebranding as a significant stop on the Arsene Wenger farewell tour had an effect but you would like to think the competitive juices would soon course through the combatants.
Not a bit. Manchester United take on Arsenal at Old Trafford and there is one booking.
One booking. It used to be rougher in the tunnel pre-match. And no gold star for