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The Weekend In Numbers: Mourinho versus Ranieri and Wenger's terrible run against Chelsea

After the mini diversion of the midweek EFL Cup (née League Cup), the Premier League retur...



The Weekend In Numbers: Mourin...
Soccer

The Weekend In Numbers: Mourinho versus Ranieri and Wenger's terrible run against Chelsea

After the mini diversion of the midweek EFL Cup (née League Cup), the Premier League returns this weekend with some big fixtures.

No Super Sunday mind you, as West Ham and Southampton are the only match that day, but Saturday will feature two big fixtures.

Champions Leicester City's trip to face a shaky Manchester United is intriguing.

And to book-end Saturday, it's a London derby between an Arsenal showing signs of life after a bad start to the season against an Antonio Conte-led Chelsea that have a couple of question marks over them.

Mourinho's not so superior to Ranieri head-to-head

Leicester might be Premier League champions but their recent league record against Man United has not been good.

Not good at all. Apart from a famous 5-3 victory over Louis van Gaal's side very early in his reign - from 3-1 down as well - Leicester have only avoided defeat three times in 13 league games against the Reds.

Of course, given that the Foxes haven't always been in the top flight in every season over the past 17 years, that record is a little skewed and spans a host of era.

However, it's Jose Mourinho in charge at United now and in the past he has been occasionally disdainful of Claudio Ranieri when the two ex-Chelsea bosses were in charge of Inter Milan and Roma respectively in Serie A.

At one point, Mourinho who never shies away from verbal jousting, once said: "Ranieri on the other hand has the mentality of someone who doesn’t need to win. He is almost 70 years old. He has won a Supercup and another small trophy and he is too old to change his mentality. He’s old and he hasn’t won anything." 

Things change. Mourinho might have stopped the Italian winning the Community Shield in August but last season's Premier League went to Ranieri as the Portuguese coach enjoyed a torrid half-season with Chelsea. 

And Mourinho's record against Ranieri isn't spectacularly one-sided or anything either. It reads 3 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats in the United manager's favour, with the losses being a 2-1 defeat to Roma in March 2010 and a 2-1 defeat to Leicester when he was in charge at Chelsea.

Arsenal's bogeyish team 

Arsene Wenger's personal record against Chelsea reads 18 wins, 14 draws and 18 defeats. Pretty symmetrical.

But it's a tale of two halves, much like many say about his management of Arsenal.

Wenger had plenty of joy against Chelsea pre-2004 with his first 20 matches against the Blues yielding zero defeats and 13 wins.

As you can guess, the past 30 matches haven't been quite as fruitful especially from the moment his best friend* Jose Mourinho turned up in England.

Indeed, in his last 10 fixtures against Chelsea, he has only tasted victory once and suffered seven defeats.

Shane Long looking for a first

Shane Long has done many things like play hurling and score against the world champions for his country.

But as Southampton prepare to face a West Ham side that have lost the ability to defend, the Ireland striker will be looking to do something he has never done.

Yes, that's score against West Ham. In eight matches, he has yet to score against the Hammers.

But he does have one assist and twice as many yellow cards against them.

*This may be inaccurate.

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