What would a London derby be without a little scandal? And who is an easier target to provoke than Jose Mourinho? These rhetorical questions are the prologue to the match of Tottenham Hotspurs Arsenal of this weekend. (July 12 2020, 11:30am ET on NBCSN and online via NBCSports.com).
The Arsenal Social Media team decided to post on their Facebook page: ‘it’s not easy beating Sheffield United at Bramall Lane’ together with the highlights of their victory over the same club in the FA Cup. Nothing wrong with that, would it not have been that the Spurs just lost at the same Bramall Lane. Leave it to the English press to stir up a controversy, so they asked Mourhino what he thought of the post. He replied:
“I think if they were top of the league or fighting for top four in a really good moment they wouldn’t enjoy the problems of others,” Mourinho said. “You only enjoy the problems of others when you are also in trouble. In the end it says more about them, they don’t have much to celebrate, they have to get every opportunity to do it.
“They are in a very similar situation to us on the table. I don’t like to connect the club with some post or tweet. Maybe I am wrong, maybe I am right, but the person that did it probably did it by themselves. I don’t believe it was [Mikel] Arteta that posted, I don’t believe it was [Granit] Xhaka or another captain that did it. It was probably some guy that was at home for three months working from home. No problem at home, but we will be waiting for them.”
Needless to say, a win from Tottenham this weekend will unleash a Social Media Repentance. Probably initiated by Jose Mourhino himself.
Spurs Arsenal Predictions
It’s no surprise that there is some tension in the air. Not only is it a (North-London) derby between rivals, they are also competing for the same European Ticket for next season. Winning this game is very, very important for both teams. The two teams are similar in more regards; they have started with a new course and you can definitely see growth, although there is still room for improvement. With both of them.
Tottenham has been regarded as a friendly team. Mourinho is poised to make that reputation go away. We already saw the effects of his evil genius influence last monday, with the ‘fight’ between Son and Lloris.
Arteta on the other hand is making the rebellious Arsenal group more friendly, or at least, more subjective to Arteta’s will. Two clubs that are surprisingly similar; who is the favourite here? Hard to tell.
