'Possession is for philosophers,' says Jose Mourinho as he hits back at critics of...

[ASFN Admin]

Jose Mourinho has hit back at critics of the way in which Tottenham Hotspur returned to the top of the Premier League table by beating their North London rivals Arsenal. And the Tottenham head coach has also grasped the opportunity to take a swipe at anybody who had accused him of being past his peak when he arrived at the club, following 2½ years at Manchester United. Tottenham beat Arsenal with goals from Son Heung-min and Harry Kane, but failed to register a single second-half effort on goal during a game in which Arsenal dominated possession. Sky Sports pundits Jamie Redknapp and Graeme Souness both claimed that Tottenham had not been good to watch, but Mourinho fired back at anybody who questioned his approach. Speaking with Brazilian media after the victory over Arsenal, Mourinho said: “Well, this ball possession story is more for sports philosophers than it’s for me. No one has ever seen me say: ‘I lost that game but I had more possession.’ You never saw me say anything like that. You may have heard me say: ‘We lost that game, we didn’t deserve to lose, we had more opportunities than the opponent.' You can hear me say that. “But you never heard me say in 20 years: ‘We lost that game and the opponent had more ball possession than we did.' What matters is what you do with the ball. Whatever you want to do with the ball. And with the ball we scored two fantastic goals today. And when we had it, we never lost it in conditions where the opponent could hurt us.”

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