Smokescreen

Jose Mourinho talks about Arsenal an awful lot. Why does he feel the need? He has a very good team – and so he should, given Roman Abramovic’s staggering investment in the club. What’s more, if he should feel that the team in which he is so supremely confident needs strengthening, he has plenty of pocket money – enough to outbid Arsenal, Manchester United and anyone else you care to name. On top of all that he, Jose Mourinho, is ‘The Special One’, the best there is. As he continues to remind us at every available opportunity.

Given all that dosh and all that ability, it is scarcely surprising that he has been successful. But with just one Premiership title and one Carling Cup to date, he has a long way to go to match the monumental achievements of Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger.

And even further if he intends to build a team which over a sustained period is capable of moving from ruthlessly efficient to simply irresistible. A team which beyond the immediate confines of its own fan base is not merely respected, but loved.

Jose Mourinho feels the need to go on about Arsenal because he knows that this is true. But because he does not want us to know that he knows, and to sense his insecurity, he is careful to suggest that Arsene Wenger feels the need to talk about Chelsea all the time.

A strategy which, it seems, fools practically no-one.