Before the big match between Arsenal and MU: Mourinho should be careful not to fall into his own trap.

Coach Mourinho often uses the park-the-bus tactic when playing away games against the top 6 Premier League clubs. But in reality, Mourinho's trap is no longer effective. In fact, he has often fallen into his own trap.

In the past, Coach Mourinho always boasted that he could overwhelm Coach Wenger. The statistics clearly show that. In 17 encounters with the “Professor”, Mourinho only lost 2 matches (won 8 and drew 7).

Wenger no longer afraid of Mourinho's counter-attacking style?

The reason is explained by Mourinho's playing style that counters Wenger. Arsenal's fiery attacking style always has difficulty against the defensive counter-attacking "formula" of the clubs led by Mourinho. The "Gunners" always have to pay the price for their naivety.

However, that is a story of the past. In reality, Coach Wenger has learned many lessons. In some big matches, they did not "naively" attack as usual, instead, the "Professor" made calculations.

Last season, Wenger's Arsenal faced Mourinho's MU twice. The result was 1 win and 1 draw. Of course, there were many reasons for this result (like MU giving up in the Premier League at the end of the season), but clearly, it was a positive result. It showed that Coach Wenger was no longer afraid of facing Mourinho.

Mourinho's trap? Perhaps, coach Wenger was too alert. That's why, before the match, the French coach shared: "Arsenal are more stable in defense. We always use an attacking style of play and are at risk of being counter-attacked. Therefore, I prepared for this by arranging 3 defenders."

The French coach even played a psychological game before the match with MU when he affirmed that he did not expect MU to “park the bus”. He also hoped that this match would be… exciting.

Reality also proves that Coach Mourinho’s trap is not only familiar to Coach Wenger but it has become “easy to predict” with strong clubs in the Premier League. In away matches, Coach Mourinho often uses the “parking the bus” style of play but it is ineffective.

Statistics show that since arriving at MU, Coach Mourinho and his students have traveled to the home field of the top 6 Premier League clubs 7 times but have not won any (drawn 3, lost 4). In these 7 matches, MU only scored 1 goal and conceded 9 goals.

Arsenal had two favorable results against MU last season.

Obviously, that number has pointed out the problem. Mourinho's team is no longer as sharp in counter-attacking as before. Partly because he does not have a good force to implement this style of play (the players Mourinho bought all serve the purpose of attacking). Moreover, their opponents have been on guard and can easily intercept MU's counter-attacks.

In other words, Mourinho's trap has turned on itself. His intentions have repeatedly failed because of his familiar playing style.

The question is whether the “Special One” will continue to “park the bus” in the match against Arsenal? Most likely yes. Because that mindset has been ingrained in Coach Mourinho and is not easy to change. Besides, MU’s ball possession ability is not necessarily equal to other competitors (including Arsenal) to be able to play an open game.

To succeed, Mourinho may have to surprise his opponents with lightning attacks (like Martial's goal against Tottenham). But overall, it won't be easy for him to defeat Arsenal.

According to Dantri