Jose Mourinho's three-word instruction for Chelsea squad every time they played Arsenal

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John Obi Mikel once revealed Jose Mourinho ’s tactics whenever Chelsea played Arsenal were to “rough them up”. Mourinho’s two spells in charge of the Blues, from 2004 to 2007 and then 2013 to 2015, saw him regularly come up against Arsene Wenger ’s Gunners.

The fixture between two of the Premier League ’s top clubs of the era often produced a clash of styles , with Wenger’s side playing the more attractive and creative football while Mourinho’s men imposed themselves physically and prided themselves on defensive solidity.

Two players who came up against each other in the London derby on several occasions were midfielders Jack Wilshere and Mikel . Wilshere appeared on the latter’s The Obi One podcast earlier this year, where the Nigerian was asked about the Special One’s tactics in the weeks leading up to those heated fixtures.

Mikel admitted: “Well, we knew our tactic was to rough them up. You had to be tough, you had to be aggressive. That was the only way we could stop them because technically they were so good. They were much better than us technically, no doubt about that.

“But we knew that if we were just able to rough them up and be in their faces throughout the game, we’d get results. We could beat them that way.

“So for us, every time we played against Arsenal it was simple: stay compact, get into their faces and make sure we don’t let their creative players have the space to express themselves.”

He added: “It was always tough but we found a way of playing against them which was very effective and we never changed.”

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That was certainly the case as Wenger faced Mourinho’s Chelsea 15 times across all competitions across those two stints in west London.

In those 15 attempts, Wenger’s only victory over the Portuguese came in the 2015 Community Shield , while Mourinho claimed eight wins , including five in the Premier League alone.

Tensions sometimes spilled over, most notably in the 2007 League Cup final, where Mikel was sent off along with Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor following an on-pitch brawl as Chelsea won the game 2-1. Wenger and Mourinho also had their fair share of altercations on the touchline , along with back-and-forths in press conferences.

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Though the fixture today is very different in terms of the two teams’ styles and their bitterness towards each other, they have been the two best sides in the league this season.

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