After crashing out of the Champions League last Wednesday, Jose Mourinho was asked to explain why he thought Chelsea lost.

“PSG deserved to win. When a team cannot defend two corners, concedes two goals from corners … when a team cannot cope with the pressure of being one player up and play at home, and the stadium doesn’t accept the team wanting to control the game, and wants the team to win it, I think we couldn’t cope with that pressure.”

The first part of that answer is a fairly standard reply, but look at the second part in bold again.

“and the stadium doesn’t accept the team wanting to control the game, and wants the team to win it, I think we couldn’t cope with that pressure.”

I’ve underlined three parts of that answer, because they show the difference in the way we as fans view a game, and how someone paid to win games views the same event.

It’s quite obvious that Mourinho does not care in the slightest about how his teams win. The prize for winning is all that matters, and the journey that was undertaken to win that prize is irrelevant.

The end justifies the means, etc.

We can’t really fault a man for thinking that what he does is correct when his methods have won trophies at every club he’s managed.

And that would be fine, if football was just about winning.

But it isn’t.

For Mourinho, winning is enough.

But for fans who are desperate to set themselves apart from everyone else in any way possible, winning by itself isn’t enough. Chelsea wins trophies. So have Arsenal. And Liverpool. And Manchester United. And every other big club in the world.

All clubs win, it’s how they win that’s important to their fans.

Mourinho wants his team to do just enough to progress in the competition, the fans wanted their team to win the game that they were playing in front of them. Mourinho wanted to defend, the fans wanted to attack.

Despite all his success in his first stint at Chelsea, this was the root cause behind his departure.

What has this got to do with Arsenal?

A couple of things.

A similar reaction is happening at Arsenal at the moment, but in reverse.

Right now, Arsenal fans are revelling in the team’s seemingly new-found desire not to attack at any opportunity.

At Chelsea, fans are telling the team to push up, yet at Arsenal, we’re telling them to sit back. It’s crazy to think that as of right now, Arsenal fans want to watch more boring football, not less of it.

But as the team becomes more conservative, it’s not been at the expense of the club’s identity. There still remains a sense that attacking is always a priority, and that we should still try to impose our own style of play onto a game.

It’s an evolution, instead of a revolution.

It’s Arsenal, Jim. Just not as we know it.

The win at Old Trafford last Monday was hugely illustrative of where both clubs find themselves.

Manchester United are a club in the middle of an identity crisis right now.

One week they’re playing a conservative passing style with three defenders at the back, the next week they’re playing 4-4-2 and lumping the ball up to their tallest player at every opportunity.

Nobody at the club knows their best formation or tactics, and even whilst winning games, fans are far from pleased with the quality of football on show.

In two years time, Arsene Wenger will leave the club (his contract will be up, he’ll be 67. This is a hunch, but when I look at what the French national team will be made up of in 2017, I’d be stunned if he didn’t fancy that job. Pogba, Kondogbia, Griezmann, Lacazette, Benzema, Zouma, Umtiti, Fekir, and plenty more to come. He’d be mad not to want it).

Manchester United have screwed up twice in regards to replacing a man who built the club up in his own image.

Chelsea spent five years trying to find someone who would make them care as much as Mourinho did, and finally ended up with Mourinho again, only to be now remembering why they wanted him to leave in the first place.

It’s going to be nigh on impossible for whoever replaces Wenger to replicate his success, not only in the amount of victories, but also in the manner in which he achieves them.

That’s why the discussion has to be had now, on whether we want the next manager to be someone who is more interested in winning than maintaining the club’s identity, or someone to continue in the manner that Wenger has tried to implement over the years.

This is not something that can be done in a day, or a year.

Whether you think Wenger is the best man for the job right now or not is irrelevant.

Arsenal should be planning for life after him right now, because the mistakes being made right now by others are so obvious, it would be foolish not to learn from them, and act accordingly.