Yahoo Sport 
Spurs were reactive, organised, and effective - this derby victory was straight from the Jose Mourinho handbook
In the controversial biography of Jose Mourinho written by Spanish journalist Diego Torres, it is claimed that the Tottenham Hotspur manager has a seven-point plan for winning big games against high-quality opponents.
One of those bullet points, Torres reports, is that “the game is won by the team who commits fewer errors”. Another is that “whoever has the ball is more likely to make a mistake”. A third states: “Football favours whoever provokes more errors in the opposition”. You do not need to hear the other four to get the picture.
If any team was going to prove Mourinho right, it is the modern Arsenal. He has never lost at home to Arsenal in his career and it came as no surprise that, despite the contrasts in style and mood between the two clubs in recent weeks, he once again found a way to jab his tactical fingers into the opponent’s pressure points during Sunday’s north London derby.
Reactive, organised, effective: this was a victory straight from the Mourinho handbook. There was even the classic siege mentality within his team, as evidenced by Toby Alderweireld’s post-match interview with the television cameras. “We wanted to prove some points,” said Alderweireld. “In the press there is a lot of negativity about the team.”
For Tottenham, was there anything new to be learned from this victory? Probably not. Mourinho remains capable of shutting down expansive opposition, which has never really been the issue. The major problems for his team seem to arise when they must take the game to their opponents, as seen in their drab showing against a compact Bournemouth last week.
It was instructive to hear Mourinho explain his tactical thinking in his post-match press conference. When asked about his game-plan, he first joked that he would have to charge for that sort of insight. Then he quipped that Amazon, who are filming a behind-the-scenes documentary, would know exactly what he had planned.
“Arsenal are playing well in my opinion,” Mourinho said, having finally decided to shed some light on his approach. “Since Mikel [Arteta] changed [his formation] and they started playing with [defenders] plus the wing-backs, two midfield players plus the three attacking players, I think they are playing well.
“I thought I needed to give a different shape to the team to control that. By controlling that we would be in a better position to try to win the game. I wanted my back four to be focused on closing the central areas and to jump on the wing-backs, on special occasions. For that I needed sacrifices from [Moussa] Sissoko and Lucas [Moura]. At the same time we had to target them to go on attacking transitions and changing the direction of the play.”
In short, Mourinho changed his shape, operating with an unfamiliar 4-4-2, not to dominate the game but to nullify Arsenal. The plan, primarily, was to stop Arteta’s side, and then to counter-attack when the opportunities arose. Arsenal had 63 per cent of the ball, playing 630 passes to Tottenham’s 371. Tottenham’s shape was an acceptance that Arsenal are currently playing the better football, made with the knowledge that Arteta’s side remain vulnerable at crucial moments.
As Mourinho knows well, against big opponents away from home, Arsenal seem almost guaranteed to implode in some way or another. Arteta has made so much progress with this team, providing them with structure and control, but he has so far been unable to solve this rather pressing problem.
This time it was Sead Kolasinac making the needless defensive error, and then it was Shkodran Mustafi towards the end of the game. In previous matches, against Manchester City last month for example, it has been David Luiz. The other defenders have hardly been innocent bystanders over the course of the last few seasons, either.
The frustration is almost made worse because, again, the overall performance of the team was encouraging for Arteta. “If we minimise the mistakes that we do and we keep playing like that, we are going to win many, many football games,” he said. “Because we are going to make it really difficult for the opponent. I am sure of that.”
On this occasion, they made it difficult for themselves. The timing of Kolasinac’s error, barely three minutes after Alexandre Lacazette’s sensational opener, could hardly have been more damaging. “The first goal in a big game, you know how important it is and the percentages of winning when you have that,” said Arteta. “Just giving it away like this, after what it takes to break down a team like Spurs, it affects.”
It says plenty about the different ways in which they view football that Arteta felt like his team had gifted the victory to Mourinho. “When I give it to him, I feel bad,” Arteta said, amid compliments to Mourinho’s managerial prowess.
Mourinho, we can safely assume, will see it slightly differently. Yes, his side benefited from errors. But in his school of thought those mistakes were rewards for Tottenham’s strategy, rather than unprompted gifts from Arsenal. It was not a coincidence that the visitors made those mistakes. According to that biography, it was all part of the seven-point plan.
The old strategies clearly still work for Mourinho, at least in games when Tottenham can deploy them. The challenge for the Portuguese, who takes his side to Newcastle United on Wednesday, is making Tottenham as effective when they need to be proactive as when they can be reactive.
