Records continue to tumble for Jose Mourinho at Spurs

Nine years. 150 matches. All without a single home defeat. Visiting a team managed by Jose Mourinho was an unnerving proposition.

The Portuguese coach enjoyed a remarkable home record across three clubs until Real Madrid’s 1-0 defeat to Sporting Gijon in April 2011.

Three years of this run took place in west London at Stamford Bridge, home of Tottenham’s opponents on Tuesday night, Chelsea.

Fabio Borini is the answer, and most people will already know the question. The diminutive Italian striker scored the winner for Sunderland to inflict Mourinho’s first ever home defeat as Chelsea boss.

Since his arrival at rivals Tottenham, the north London club have helped the manager fail to extend his current records, rather than setting about creating new ones.

Before Spurs’ fixture against Everton, Mourinho had taken charge of ten Premier League opening day fixtures, winning nine and drawing once. Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s second-half header ensured a poor start to the season for Tottenham and a Mourinho record tarnished.

Newcastle presented a team that the 57-year-old had enjoyed a 100% record against in eight previous Premier League meetings, a 95th-minute Callum Wilson penalty controversially awarded by VAR eradicating that one.

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In fact, no manager had ever managed to do the double over Mourinho in a Premier League season before last campaign, Frank Lampard the man to achieve that feat.

There’s no doubt that the record will want to be set straight. The Carabao Cup presents a realistic opportunity for silverware to Mourinho. It’s a competition he won as Chelsea and Manchester United boss and will want to lift again.

Chelsea may not fear the trip across London though. Mourinho’s home record in N17 is satisfactory, yet unspectacular, and his presence on the touchline seems to have faded in recent times.

We probably shouldn’t ask Jose about these statistics and records. After all, the rant on his previous striker’s strike-rate was highly entertaining and also highly inaccurate when responding to Paul Merson’s comments on Harry Kane in June.

“I had one guy for me called [Didier] Drogba, he played for me [for]four seasons, he scored 186 goals, which gives an average of 46 goals per season.

“I had one guy who also isn’t bad, he plays for Juventus now [Cristiano Ronaldo], he played for me three seasons, he scored 168 goals, which gives an average of 56 goals per season.” – Mourinho’s comments came after Paul Merson claimed Harry Kane should leave the club due to the Portuguese coach’s style of play.

Repeat the same format above for Karim Benzema, Diego Milito and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Mourinho is box office and always will be, nonetheless, the scrutiny naturally increases when results aren’t transpiring.

Spurs represent the first side under his recent management which are the underdogs to win major trophies. This mentality shift is difficult to implement but his transfer dealings fit this mould.

In fact, when watching Gareth Bale’s first interview back at Tottenham, the Welshman mentioned the word ‘trophy’ or ‘trophies’ seven times. To follow Mourinho’s analytics above, that’s a reference every 29 seconds, impressive Gareth.

With a Europa League tie against Maccabi Haifa looming large on Thursday, the manner in which Mourinho attempts to utilise his squad is critical to success over the next week.

This is a fixture that Spurs would often lose under Mauricio Pochettino. Whilst not detracting from the brilliance of the Argentine and his success at the club, he would often have to call upon squad players to complete minutes in the Carabao Cup.

Fernando Llorente, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou and Victor Wanyama all would feature heavily in the competition as Spurs rued their failure to secure better depth within the squad during the transfer window.

In Spurs’ Carabao Cup semi-final loss on penalties to Chelsea in 2019, Pochettino’s attacking reinforcements on the bench consisted of bit-part player Nkoudou and the ever-inconsistent Lucas Moura.

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This excuse doesn’t sit as easily anymore. The ‘striker wanted’ sign should still be plastered around Europe by chairman Daniel Levy but Jose’s squad isn’t far from complete. Should they complete deals for Milan Skriniar and a striker before October’s deadline, the trigger reaction from Spurs fans to lay any blame at Levy’s door will require a stronger argument.

The fixture against his former side will convey Mourinho’s trust towards certain players. Dele Alli must return if he has any future at the club, whilst players such as Gedson Fernandes and Ryan Sessegnon have simply failed to prove their worth and often fail to be named in matchday squads.

A strong XI wouldn’t come as any surprise as evidenced in his line-ups during Tottenham’s Europa League qualifying campaign.

Mourinho will want to start adding and creating new records at Spurs promptly, the north Londoners aiming to reach the fifth round of a competition which remains their last piece of silverware back in 2008.

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