Should Arsenal Take A Leaf Out Of Tottenham’s Book?

Spurs bit the bullet and made a managerial change last week while Arsenal are sitting still (© PA Images)

Jose Mourinho got his tenure as Tottenham manager off to a winning start in the Premier League with a 3-2 win at West Ham to lift the dark cloud that had been hanging over the team since the start of the season.

The victory gave Spurs their first away win in the league since January 20 and maintained Mourinho's impressive record when starting a managerial job in England.

Saturday’s win means Mourinho has got off to winning starts in all four of his jobs in the Premier League after successful beginnings with Chelsea, twice, and more recently with Manchester United.

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Statistics: Charlie Mullan

Tottenham, who averaged 1.2 points per game under Mauricio Pochettino this season, decided to bring Mourinho in to kick-start their campaign following the sacking of Pochettino last Wednesday. And while their decision to do so seems to have been justified, has it come too late?

Chelsea and United took an average of 1.9 points per game from Mourinho's opening 10 games in charge and if he maintains that average this season, Spurs will be on course to finish with 62 points, which has been enough to secure a top four place only twice (2003/04 and 2004/05) in a 38-game Premier League campaign.

The 56-year-old, who has not accepted a managerial job midway through a football season since becoming Porto manager in January 2002, takes charge of his first home league game against Bournemouth on Saturday knowing he has always won both his opening games in a new job in the Premier League.

Mourinho also had spells in charge of Inter and Real Madrid and with his first 10 games at those clubs included, his numbers are all the more impressive. In 50 games, the Portuguese has a 62 per cent winning record, lost just seven and registered 24 clean sheets.

Statistics: Charlie Mullan

There is no doubting the positive affect Mourinho has when he first arrives at a club – Tottenham’s top-four odds have already improved from 4/1 to 9/4 since his arrival – but the atmosphere can quickly change if things don't go the way he wants them too.

However, Tottenham appears to be a good fit for him so far and in Harry Kane, he has a talisman in attack that will deliver goals just as Didier Drogba did when the pair enjoyed great success at Stamford Bridge.

Tottenham's decision to make their managerial switch at this stage of the season may have their neighbours Arsenal thinking about doing something similar after they went five league games without a win following their 2-2 draw at home to Southampton on Saturday, thanks to Alexandre Lacazette's 96th minute equaliser.

Did Arsenal Miss Out On Jose?

Earlier this month, Arsenal were reportedly open to appointing Mourinho themselves amid claims he met with the club’s head of football, Raul Sanllehi, but former Gunners defender Nigel Winterburn believes his old side were always behind Tottenham in the queue to snap up the Portuguese.

“It’s difficult to approach another manager when you already have one in charge,” Winterburn told Gambling.com.

“The Jose Mourinho situation at Tottenham – and the sacking of Mauricio Pochettino – looks to me as though enquiries and talks had already taken place well before the decision to sack Pochettino had been made.

“I just don’t think you would sack Pochettino and appoint someone within 12 hours unless there had been advanced talks.

“You could say Tottenham were ahead of the game, but I don’t think it would have made much difference, I’m not sure Arsenal would have been able to get Jose Mourinho even if they had wanted him. His talks with Spurs were clearly going on behind the scenes for some time.”

Mourinho is off to another winning start at struggling Tottenham (© PA Images)

With the departure of the much-loved Pochettino still a sore spot for some Spurs supporters, Winterburn suspects it won’t be long before the doubters get behind the Mourinho movement.

He said: “When people look at how Tottenham have played and how they want to play – they like to play attacking football and have done so consistently over the last five years or so – maybe it was a surprising appointment.

“But for people saying ‘he’s not a good fit’ I ask them – well what is a good fit? Tottenham wanted a manager to come in who is a proven winner, who has won trophies at every club he’s been at. Some people might not be too excited about his style of play but if they have a trophy at the end of the season, they’ll soon change their minds.

“What’s happening at Tottenham will be an interesting watch. We’ll see how far up the table they can get and how they get on in the Champions League, although I think the FA Cup is their best chance of silverware this season.

“But from my point of view, I’m hoping they’ll be way off the pace!”

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Will Arsenal Mimic Their Rivals?

On the subject of managerial changes, Winterburn admits he has no indication as to what his old club Arsenal will do about their poor on-field results, with the Gunners sitting in eighth place, eight points shy of fourth-placed Chelsea and an enormous 19 points behind league leaders Liverpool.

Online bookmakers lengthened Arsenal’s odds on a top-four finish from 5/1 to as long as 8/1 following the draw with Southampton, and the former left-back admits it’s looking increasingly unlikely they’ll make the grade.

He said: “The last three home results have not been great – three draws – and when you add in to that the away performance at Leicester (a 2-0 defeat) a top four finish at this point seems completely unrealistic.

“We all know that an eight-point gap can be eroded very quickly, but already Arsenal are heavily reliant on other teams having a poor patch while we simultaneously turn our form around.

“From talking to supporters, which I’m in a great position to do as I work at the stadium on match days at the Emirates, they are finding it very difficult to believe that things are going to change radically throughout the rest of the season.

There has even been suggestions Emery could be replaced by Pochettino (© PA Images)

“I really have no idea if Arsenal will stick with Emery. He was brought in to improve the squad, change the mentality and get some consistency back.

“We’ve changed the squad around a fair bit but people are saying, if anything, we’re actually worse than we were a year-and-a-half ago before Arsene Wenger left.

“So Unai Emery has got a massive job on his hands to convince the supporters that he’s the right man for the job, but any decision will come down to the board and the members that are in place to make such decisions.

“But I can tell you, once the crowd start making advances and chanting that they’re not happy, and if that continues without the form picking up, then the board will be left with very little option.

“It’s looking very difficult for Unai. I think he needs to win a significant amount of games and he needs to start winning them very, very quickly.”

Pochettino To Arsenal?

With Pochettino now out of work, bookmakers have cut him in to 5/1 third favourite to be Arsenal’s next manager.

It’s a prospect that would likely be well received by Arsenal fans, given the Argentine’s exemplary record at Southampton and Tottenham, but a switch to his old club’s fiercest rivals would be too much for anyone to handle right now, warns Winterburn.

“It takes a very, very brave player or manager to make the switch directly from Spurs to Arsenal,” he said.

“People have done it in the past of course – I remember the reception Sol Campbell got when he made the switch in 2001 – but in the age of social media it’s a big ask, there’s so much hatred there.

“I don’t think it’s only a question of whether the manager is the right fit for the club. Pochettino would have to look at it from his own point of view as well.

“If he has family and children here, would he want them to be subject to the hatred that would come his way? And believe me the hatred would come. In a way it’s a little bit sad, but that’s football and it’s the way of the world now.

“It’s complex and by no means a straight-forward prospect.”