Football
Kevin Palmer 9y

Jose Mourinho's mind games have lost their effect, says Laurent Koscielny

Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny says the mind games played by Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho no longer have any impact on their intended targets.

Mourinho has offered up his usual swiping jibes at Gunners boss Arsene Wenger ahead of their Sunday Premier League clash between the two sides at Emirates Stadium, but Koscielny is not convinced anyone is listening to him any more.

Wenger has yet to get the better of Mourinho in 12 meetings with the feisty Portuguese tactician and Koscielny is hoping this is the day when that unfortunate record ends.

"It's true that Jose Mourinho likes the psychological game, but it works just for a time," said Koscielny. "It is on the pitch where things happen. It has been complicated for the boss against Chelsea in recent years, so I hope just for once he will win against Mourinho.

"It's up to us to produce our game, which is being strong with our high pressing on the pitch, but as in every game it is decided by a small detail. We know Chelsea are very strong on set pieces and we have to be focused on those phases."

Koscielny believes Arsenal's slow start to the season meant their hopes of a Premier League title push were over before they could get started, but insists they are ready to improve next season.

"If we had done better earlier, but football is not like this," he stated. "We didn't play well in the early part of the season, now we are better.

"For us, the most important is to finish this season well. Next season will be another thing. It's always better when you finish well. When you start the next season you have the confidence of the last season so we need to keep this with us. It's important because we have the FA Cup final so we have to finish the job well.

"I think if we finish second in the league and with the FA Cup, it will be a good season because at the start of the season we were seventh, sixth and always there was talk that Arsenal are finished this year.

"I think we have improved because we're stronger in the big games. We won at Man City we drew and won against Liverpool. Maybe we have more experience than the other team and we bought good players like Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck. We are getting better every year."

There will be suggestions that Arsenal can unsettle runaway Premier League leaders Chelsea if they win their game against the Blues, but Koscielny is not entertaining any such fantasies.

"We don't talk about the title. It's finished," he added. "After this game we will see, but for me the title is finished. We are professionals and we want to finish in a high position and we have the final of the FA Cup so we can finish the season well.

"It's always important to win against the best team in the Premier League and maybe we cannot win the title this season, but for next season it's always important as a reminder that we could win against Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool."

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