Gunners … More Mourinho mind games
LONDON: Manchester United manager José Mourinho will rejig his starting line-up for tomorrow’s Premier League trip to Arsenal following his team’s Europa League semifinal against Celta Vigo.
United beat the Spanish side 1-0 in the first leg on Thursday night, but with Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata, Michael Carrick, David de Gea and Chris Smalling on the bench in Spain, Mourinho can still field a strong side against old foe Arsene Wenger.
“I am going to change my team to play against Arsenal, so I think (Wenger) will be really happy with me,” Mourinho said.
“We are going to try (to win)… we are not going to Arsenal to say, ‘beat us’, or, ‘beat us five or 6-0’. We are going there to fight for a result.”
United are fifth in the table, five points ahead of sixth-placed Arsenal and a point and a place behind Manchester City, and Mourinho said he had all but given up on reaching the Champions League by finishing in the top four.
United can still qualify for Europe’s elite club competition by winning the Europa League.
“I think the last match against Swansea was our last chance to fight for the top four, so I am going to rest players,” he added, referring to United’s 1-1 home draw last weekend.
Wenger spoke on Thursday of making peace with Mourinho, a manager he has beaten only once in 15 meetings in the 2015 Community Shield, and with whom he has been involved in several high-profile verbal clashes.
“He doesn’t need to (make peace). He doesn’t need to because there are no problems,” Mourinho said.
“In the last match at Old Trafford, we shook hands before, after. I remember that I still met him in the corridor for the press conferences, we shook hands again.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool must find a way of winning their three remaining games to ensure a top-four finish this season and manager Juergen Klopp said he liked the fact that his team were under pressure to end the season on a positive note.
The Merseyside club are third in the table, three points ahead of fourthplaced Manchester City and four in front of United, who both have a game in hand.
However, injuries, inconsistent performances and trademark frailties mean it is anyone’s guess whether Klopp’s team will get over the line and qualify for the Champions League.
Liver pool host ninth-placed Southampton tomorrow – having lost three times and drawn once against them in their last four meetings in all competitions – and Klopp is banking on home advantage to get past their tricky opponents.
“Fighting for the top four, you pretty much have to win every game,” the German told a news conference yesterday. “I like this kind of pressure. Fighting for something really special is the best pressure you can have.”
“There is positive pressure. We can go for something. We know about the quality of the opponent. Our plan for tomorrow is to use Anfield. For some it’s a nervy situation, but we need to be brave, enjoy the game and use the crowd.
“I understand that people are getting nervous but Anfield is always more than good. What we’re going for is for all of us,” he added.
Liverpool dodged a bullet last Monday by beating Watford 1-0, thanks to an Emre Can wonderful overhead strike, as their main top- four r iv a l s all dropped points, but their recent 2-1 home defeat by Crystal Palace is still on Klopp’s mind.
“Two weeks ago, after Palace, it was like this,” Klopp said with a sigh. “Then one week later, we could have gone into the game at Watford in fifth because of other results.
“Somebody obviously already thought the results were written but that’s not how football is – nothing is for sure. We didn’t think about it, we only tried to do our job.
“We did it then and now we have to do it again.”
Klopp is optimistic Brazilian midfielder Philippe Coutinho, who suffered a dead leg against Watford, will be available to face Southampton, but skipper Jordan Henderson is still not back from the foot injury that has kept him out since February.
Liverpool must also visit West Ham United before finishing the season at home to relegation-threatened Middlesbrough. – Reuters