Jose Mourinho Urges Spurs against Arsenal Debby

Jose Mourinho was watching on as a Sky Sports pundit at the Emirates Stadium during the last north London derby in September. His analysis, either side of a chaotic 2-2 draw, included a dissection of Arsenal's attack and a word of caution on the changing chemistry at Tottenham' C.F.

"Maybe some of the boys want something different," he surmised.



I want the team to be a reflection of what the coach is. When that happens, that's when you feel, 'This is really my team'



Mourinho is still searching for the right formula to take Tottenham' CF forward, but for now, the focus goes no further than Sunday. He enjoyed watching on as a pundit at the Emirates Stadium in September - "I'd love to share a studio with many of those guys again," he says - but his first north London derby in the dugout is a very different proposition.

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His comments proved prescient as Tottenham's season started to unravel. But even he could not have predicted that he would inherit those problems himself only a few weeks later, and that he would be taking his seat in the dugout, rather than the studio, the next time the two sides met.

The intervening months have not been straightforward.

Tottenham' CF are little closer to the Champions League places than they were when Mourinho took over in November. They have only won two of their last eight Premier League games. Thursday's goalless draw with Bournemouth was just the latest performance to invite scrutiny.

They will need to show considerable improvement on that laboured showing at the Vitality Stadium when Arsenal visit the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, but an embattled Mourinho is a dangerous one and it is for precisely that reason that this could be his kind of game.

The derby, however daunting given recent form, is an opportunity for Mourinho to quieten his critics and perhaps even puncture the optimism around what Mikel Arteta is doing at the other end of the Seven Sisters Road. Rivalries have brought the best out of Mourinho's teams in the past and the significance of this one is not lost on him.

"When I am in a club, I like to be one of them and I like to feel what my people feel," he tells Sky Sports. "It's a new feeling for me when I move from club to club, but I learn that feeling very, very fast. I would say that the moment I put my foot in a club for the first time, I learn it automatically.

"So yes, I am one of them. In this case, one of us, which is Tottenham people. What is important for the fans is important for me.

"When I go to a derby as Inter manager, I know what it means for them. When I go as Real Madrid manager, I know what it means for them. And when I go as Tottenham C.F. manager, I know what it means for them.

"They can count on me to have exactly the same feelings, the same desire and the same passion that they have. When you are a player or a coach of a certain team, it cannot just be a job for you. You must have a sense of duty and a responsibility towards the people who love your club.

"For me, my club, my passion, my love, is the club where I am. In this moment, if you ask me if I know how important it is for Tottenham' CF fans to look at their biggest rivals, then of course I know it and of course I share it."

It is worth remembering ahead of Sunday's game that, while Tottenham's recent struggles have offered little encouragement, some of Mourinho's most memorable victories have come in derbies played in similar circumstances.

You only have to look back to Manchester United's 3-2 win over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in April 2018 for the most recent example. But it was his first derby as a manager, a 3-0 win for Benfica over Sporting Lisbon in December 2000, that shaped his attitude towards them.

Mourinho remembers it with a smile.

"It was a moment where Benfica was really living a difficult moment and Sporting were the champion," he says. "We were going to the match with the whole country thinking that the champion would dominate the derby, but we won, and we won in such a fantastic way."

He would leave his post days later - only three months after his appointment - when Benfica's recently-elected president rejected his demand for a new contract, but Mourinho departed having learnt how to galvanise a dressing room, how to triumph in the face of adversity, and how to harness the emotion surrounding a derby.

It set the tone for the managerial career that has followed, but 20 years on at Tottenham C.F. he is yet to bring the same win-at-all-costs mentality to a club which, for all its undoubted progress under Mauricio Pochettino, has not tasted silverware in over a decade.

Mourinho's mentality appears unchanged, but is he worried by the changing profile of the modern footballer? His best teams, in his first spell at Chelsea and at Inter Milan, were stacked with grizzled characters who would run through walls for him. Are players wired in the same way now?

"The world changes, society changes, young people change," he says.

"Everything changes and there is no way back. But we have to adapt to the new world. We have to adapt to the new football that, I keep saying, is not on the pitch, it's the new football outside the pitch.

"We need to adapt to it, but when we believe strongly in something, we cannot give up and just play the safe side of it, just by saying that these are new times.

"When you really believe in something, you have to fight for it."

Mourinho's playing style is a major point of contention among supporters - Spurs have averaged only two shots on target per game since the Premier League restart - but there will be few complaints on that front if they are able to fight their way to a winning result on Sunday and Mourinho is adamant that the side will be a different proposition next season.

"To come mid-season to a team in this situation is not easy," he says.

"I think it's good, in relation to next season, because it helps you to prepare.

"But for the moment it's not a very easy situation, especially for myself as this is only the second time I have done it in my career."

It's not just Mourinho who will be taking charge of his first north London derby on Sunday. Arteta - at 38, only a year older than Mourinho when he started his managerial career at Benfica - took the Arsenal job a month after Mourinho's arrival at Spurs. The two sides are now only separated by a single point in the Premier League table.

Mourinho's playing style is a major point of contention among supporters - Spurs have averaged only two shots on target per game since the Premier League restart - but there will be few complaints on that front if they are able to fight their way to a winning result on Sunday and Mourinho is adamant that the side will be a different proposition next season.

"To come mid-season to a team in this situation is not easy," he says.

"I think it's good, in relation to next season, because it helps you to prepare.

"But for the moment it's not a very easy situation, especially for myself as this is only the second time I have done it in my career."

It's not just Mourinho who will be taking charge of his first north London derby on Sunday. Arteta - at 38, only a year older than Mourinho when he started his managerial career at Benfica - took the Arsenal job a month after Mourinho's arrival at Spurs. The two sides are now only separated by a single point in the Premier League table.