Manchester United: The Judas Is Still Number One

No Zlatan, Mkhitaryan, Martial, Mata or Rooney.

Many had already written off Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United side at 3:45pm before a ball was even kicked in its game against Chelsea at Old Trafford. After all, the team had none of its star players starting against a side boasting Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, Pedro, Kante and David Luiz.

But the Ace in ManU’s hand was not on the pitch. It was in the dugout area.

Mourinho once again delivered a coaching masterclass in stopping the league leaders at Old Trafford. If there was any question about whether Mourinho still had it in him, that question was answered in emphatic fashion with a win that was as carefully engineered as any of the Portuguese maestro’s past wins at the Camp Nou and the San Siro.

The title race is suddenly blown wide open and United may have just exposed weaknesses that the rest of the league had not previously seen in Chelsea. Chelsea and Antonio Conte had no answer. The Blues could not register a shot on goal for the first time in 10 years. It could be the beginning of a monumental meltdown at the Bridge and the biggest turnaround in PL history in favour of Spurs, and all thanks to Jose.

Many pundits and radio phone-in callers raged that Jose had “killed” the game in what was a perfect demonstration of how to stop a football team from flowing with confidence. Make no mistake, Chelsea were suffocated. They couldn’t string a pass together.

Every time they seemed to get some flow, a United player interrupted or broke up the play with a foul. It is a perfect strategy for some of the lower sides like Southampton, Everton and West Brom that will be playing Chelsea in the last weeks of the season.

Mourinho may have set the stall out for the rest of the Premier League sides on how to stop Chelsea when you have few if any world class players to deploy. If you look at the team at his disposal, including the likes of Fellaini, Darmian, Rojo, Lingard and Rashford, you could argue it was a managerial piece of genius to beat Chelsea.

Jose has set up a thrilling last few weeks of the season, much as he did a few years ago when Steven Gerrard had his infamous slip, prompting a title meltdown for Liverpool and working in favour of Manchester City. Mourinho seemed driven by revenge in that Liverpool game and also against Chelsea; one thing is for sure, the Portuguese manager knows how to drag a team down.

Say what you may but Jose Mourinho is a winner. His teams win big matches. Even when he is not part of the chase, he somehow always finds a way to have a say.

The Chelsea game was a reminder that the old Mourinho is still there. It was tactical, clever and at times dirty. The rest of the Premier League will now have lost their fear of Chelsea. It may be time for Spurs to take their revenge for last season’s drama at Stamford Bridge.

by Nubaid Haroon  YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCtMg-fWm7awR41vM1GhVOkA  Twitter: twitter.com/rambofyi

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