On Reflection: The key difference between Wenger and Mourinho that could decide the title

Jose Mourinho has been in English football for five years – if you combine his two spells at Chelsea – and in that time has won three Premier League titles, two FA Cups, three League Cups and one Community Shield. He has entertained, and frustrated; his Chelsea side have played attacking football (especially at the start of last season), and it has parked the bus. But one thing remains constant with any Mourinho side. When it loses, it’s never their fault. It’s certainly never his fault. And that’s where his true skill lies: in the magician’s art of distraction.

Sunday proved the same story as Arsenal ran out 1-0 winners in the Community Shield. It was a match that marked Petr Cech’s debut for his new club, but more significantly, was the first time Arsene Wenger had beaten a Mourinho team in 14 attempts.

Arsenal’s win was deserved, not that Mourinho would agree. Before the game, he pointed out that Arsenal had been in training for an extra ten days while his side had just returned from playing some friendlies in the United States. “We wanted to give our guys a proper holiday with a month off,” he said. “Hopefully that will make a difference in the season.”

After the game, Mourinho blamed the pitch. He blamed the weather. He said Arsenal had left their philosophy in the dressing-room, and that the best team had lost. Even better for him, Wenger had neatly side-stepped him at the bottom of the Wembley steps to avoid a handshake, and the Portuguese could perpetuate another handshake non-story story for the papers.

One issue that was less mentioned, though, was the way Chelsea had played. Marvellous, Jose, you distracted everyone again! Eden Hazard skied his only chance of the game? Cech’s only stop of note was from a save-able Oscar free-kick? Kurt Zouma ended the game at left-back, with Victor Moses playing right-back? The back-up strikers to Diego Costa, Radamel Falcao and Loic Remy, failed to convince? It doesn’t matter, because Arsene Wenger didn't shake your hand! Well done, Jose!

These factors may bother Mourinho when he looks back on the game. He talked down its importance by describing it as “in between a friendly and a league game – but there’s a trophy to play for, so it's a different motivation” but a problem of strength in depth emerges. For all the talk of Chelsea’s brilliant playing of the loan system, and the excitement that the likes of Marco van Ginkel (Stoke), Christian Atsu (Bournemouth) and Patrick Bamford (Palace) have generated, the champions do look short of cover in certain positions – summed up by Zouma and Moses ending the game as full-backs.

Abdul Baba Rahman, expected to join from Augsburg, will likely replace Felipe Luis as Cesar Azpilicueta’s backup, but is it fair to expect that Blues back four to miss only a combined 13 games playing together, as it did last season? Well, actually, it might be.

This is a key part of the Mourinho methodology, and you can add it to the list of reasons he and Wenger never see eye-to-eye. While Wenger is more likely to moan about the latest ‘misfortune’ or ‘injury curse’ that his team (or Jack Wilshere) suffers, Mourinho has a different idea. He strongly believes that muscle injuries can be prevented and that training methods are crucial to injury prevention.

You may think that the more games you play, the more likely you are to get injured, but one of the main corner-stones of this idea is that playing regularly and training in a way that prepares you for that makes you less likely to get injured than playing infrequently. It’s why Mourinho’s mantra is always: “Play with your strongest team.”

The philosophy is known as ‘tactical periodisation’ and it is essentially a holistic programme to develop players in their technique, tactics, fitness and mentality all at the same time. The plan is to give the players confidence and certainty in their task for each match, and therefore find solutions depending on the game state. Periodisation prevents the accumulation of fatigue and helps optimise recovery and preparation (significantly, Mourinho always gives his players the day off after a match-day, so they can mentally wind down and relax with their families; compare to Pep Guardiola, whose players come in for video analysis of their performance while it’s still fresh in mind).

Mourinho talked about this earlier in his career, just after his Champions League success with Porto, in an interview with a Porto University student for his PhD, which he called: ‘Mourinho and the hidden science behind the success’. “You can differentiate between traditional analytical coaching where the different factors are coached in isolation, or the integrated coaching, which uses the ball,” Mourinho told him. “Then there is my way, which is called tactical periodisation.

“I don't want my team to have peaks in performance. I don’t want my team to swing performance. Rather than that, I always want high levels of performance, because to me, there aren’t any games that are more important than others.”

It’s why Eden Hazard has only missed seven league games in his three years at Chelsea; and why John Terry, Chelsea’s oldest outfield player, played every match last season. Diego Costa is the counter-point to this. He missed 12 league games last season and his hamstring injury needs to be managed this campaign. Whether Falcao or Remy can provide adequate cover will go some way to determining the success of Chelsea’s season.

Arsenal are not so reliant on one or two players, even if their star, Alexis Sanchez, also sat out Sunday’s win. Wenger played down the breaking of the ‘Jose hex’ – “honestly I would say it didn't play on my mind at all," he said – though it might have some impact. Of course the result of one semi-competitive match against a rival won’t change Wenger’s mindset but there is an obvious benefit: when Arsenal faces Chelsea on September 19, only six weeks away, the media narrative will no longer be about Wenger’s winless run.

Wenger could look at both benches and believe that Arsenal has a stronger squad. He has more selection headaches, given his decision to play Aaron Ramsey in his preferred deeper midfield position and push Santi Cazorla a little higher; preferring Theo Walcott to Olivier Giroud up front; and four full-backs all pressing for a starting-place.

This situation suits both coaches; having a stronger first eleven is perfect for Mourinho while Wenger enjoys a deeper squad. Injuries will prove decisive but Mourinho – whose methods are described as “the benchmark in football periodisation” by outspoken Wenger critic, Dutch fitness coach Raymond Verheijen – believes he at least has that element of the game under control.