Beating certain rivals comes with a pass – one that says it doesn’t have to be a straight to DVD performance – you just need to win at all costs. The North London Derby is one such a game.
We’ll dive in to the player ratings across the day, but the key factor here was that Mourinho took his squad by the short and curlys and marshalled them into a shape that would give them their best chance.
This is a squad that is remains too dysfunctional to achieve anything meaningful under any coach. So the only solution was to rejig what he and it worked – certainly against a less than amazing Arsenal.
Lucas Moura and Moussa Sissoko were far more effective playing wide across the middle. It also simplified things for the players. Sonny was removed from harms’ way on the deep left wing, where all he had achieved was getting screamed at by Hugo. This also freed up Sissoko to cover for the still unhinged Aurier went he gallivanted up field.
What’s interesting, is that Mourino gets 5 substitutes and it suddenly gets him acting conservative with his bench.
Ndombele could well be gone in the summer, based purely upon Jose’s complete reluctance to involve him.