Arsenal vs Chelsea is beauty against the beast but Blues boss Jose Mourinho is king when it comes to winning

• Chelsea can secure the league title if they beat Arsenal and Leicester
• Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger have had a decade of touchline battles
• Mourinho has hit back at Wenger's 'defensive' jibes ahead of Sunday
• He said: 'If it was easy, you wouldn't lose 3-1 at home to Monaco' 

By Matt Barlow for the Daily Mail

Published: 16:30 EST, 24 April 2015 | Updated: 17:58 EST, 24 April 2015

Jose Mourinho resisted the temptation until someone mentioned defending.

Arsene Wenger had been talking about how it was easier to set up a team designed primarily to defend, just as Brendan Rodgers had ventured after Chelsea’s victory at Liverpool, last year.

‘It’s not easy, not easy,’ said Mourinho. ‘If it was easy, you wouldn’t lose 3-1 at home to Monaco. If he defends well he draws 0-0 against Monaco and wins in Monte Carlo. It’s not easy to defend.’

Jose Mourinho hit back at Arsene Wenger during his pre-match press conference on Friday

Arsene Wenger (left) and Mourinho have over a decade of history in the Premier League 

Jose Mourinho's incredible press conference on Arsene Wenger

Monaco, ouch.

Mourinho is not afraid to hit where it hurts. Arsenal have been brilliant since the turn of the year, but they were downright awful at home to Monaco.

They conceded three and they crashed out of the Champions League. It was a blemish to support the theory that Arsenal are fine until the pressure is on.

When Chelsea crashed out of Europe they were, as usual, snarling and disputing every decision.

‘Maybe you will discover the Chelsea team are completely offensive and we are defensive for 90 minutes,’ said Wenger, resorting to sarcasm as he assessed the clash at the Emirates on Sunday.

‘Our job is to win football games and that’s what they’ve done in recent games. What’s important for me is to do what it takes to win the game. It’s easy to defend, if we have to defend then we will defend.’

It is the issue at the heart of this ideological clash. On one side Wenger, committed to the romance of attractive football. On the other Mourinho, doing what it takes to win even if it proves ugly, stacking up the trophies. Beat Arsenal and Leicester, on Wednesday, and he will clinch the title.

Arsenal lost 3-1 to Monaco in the Champions League - a result which Mourinho mentioned to the media

Prince Albert of Monaco celebrates with the away fans after the full-time whistle at the Emirates

Wenger looks dejected as he stands on the touchline during the Gunners' Champions League defeat

The challenge for Wenger is next season. Can he produce a team fit to fight for the title once again?

‘We have played amazingly well for most of the season,’ said Mourinho. ‘In the last period we have been more strategic and less artistic because we had injuries and suspensions and lost the balance of our team.

‘But we are having results. It is a great feeling to deal with the difficult moment in a strategic way. When you are lost at sea and you have no boat, you must survive. You build a raft.’ Diego Costa’s injuries and suspensions were Chelsea’s shipwreck. Without his muscular spearhead, the balance was lost and it is three months since his team won by more than one goal.

Still they win, taking six points from their last two games — against QPR and Manchester United — while recording a total of only three shots on target. They are, as Wenger says, efficient. ‘We are top since day one,’ said Mourinho. ‘We are second in terms of goals scored. We are second best for goals conceded, the team with fewest defeats.

Chelsea forward Eden Hazard (second from left) scores against Manchester United last time out

Hazard scored the only goal of the game against United to take Chelsea a step closer to the league title

A TV camera gets a close-up of the goalscorer as Hazard celebrates with Didier Drogba at Stamford Bridge

‘We have some of the best goals of the season, not individual action or shots like Charlie Adam’s from midfield, but spectacular team goals.

‘So, if we win the Premier League, we did everything right. It will be a great achievement. Looking at where Chelsea were in the last four or five years, it means a lot.’

It will be the first title in five years at Stamford Bridge. Arsenal have not won it since 2004, the year of Wenger’s Invincibles and the year Mourinho first swept into London claiming to be the Special One.

Since then, two famous clubs have been soaked in the contrasting views of two men. Arsenal are Wenger, after more than 18 years of his leadership, and Chelsea have been Mourinho for more than a decade — even during his six-year absence.

Mourinho (right) and Wenger have had plenty of touchline battles during their managerial careers

The pair rarely miss the chance to damn with faint praise or hurl a snide remark across the capital

Arsenal's Emmanuel Eboue is restrained by Chelsea boss Mourinho during the 2007 League Cup final

They rarely miss the chance to damn with faint praise or hurl a snide remark across the capital.

For many years, Wenger pursued Chelsea for ‘financial doping’ and, more recently, their tactical style, while Mourinho gorged on Arsenal’s nine years with neither a trophy nor a managerial change.

Mourinho has never lost to Wenger, a record which clearly eats away at the Frenchman, who exploded on the touchline at Stamford Bridge, in October, and shoved the Chelsea manager in the chest.

There has been no apology. ‘No, but I don’t need that,’ shrugged Mourinho, who remains incredulous that Wenger was not disciplined by the FA. Does he feel it would have been different had the roles been reversed? ‘I don’t feel, I know,’ he said.

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