Jose Mourinho Impressed Arsenal With Squad Plans After 'Dining With Gunners Chief Raul Sanllehi'

Jose Mourinho has reportedly dined with Arsenal head of football Raul Sanllehi this week amid intense speculation that he could replace Unai Emery.

The 'Special One,' 56, has been out of management since he was axed at Manchester United last season and has worked as a Sky Sports pundit for the current Premier League campaign.

But Mourinho, who has also been linked with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, has been keen to return to management and is the hot favourite to replace the under-pressure Emery.

According to the Times, the ex-Chelsea and Real Madrid boss dined with the 53-year-old Sanllehi and reportedly 'impressed with his plans' for the Gunners' squad.

Arsenal have struggled to maintain consistency and have damaged their top-four ambitions by dropping points on several occasions.

The Gunners were held to a 1-1 draw against Wolves on Saturday, despite taking a first-half lead through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Arsenal are fifth after their opening 11 league matches and are three points behind fourth-placed Leicester City, who are in action against Crystal Palace today at 2pm UK time.

Emery, 47, succeeded the legendary Arsene Wenger in 2018 and has failed to capture any silverware with the Gunners so far.

The Spaniard led his side to the Europa League final last season, though Arsenal would ultimately suffer a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Chelsea.

Emery said Arsenal's 1-1 draw with Wolves was a "bad result," but he stressed that "tactically it worked how we wanted."

He continued: "It's not a good result for us. We tried.

"We couldn't impose our game plan in 90 minutes.

"When we started at 1-0, it was a very good moment to take confidence and to use it to try and score the second goal.

"Really, we didn't concede a lot of chances but the match, for me, was equal for two teams and if you don't score the second goal, you are in the possibility also that they can score.

"The reaction was good, more pushing and better opportunities to score.

"But in the end a draw is not good for us."

Arsenal will resume their Europa League campaign on Wednesday with an away trip to Vitoria de Guimaraes.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Football News, gunners, Jose Mourinho, Unai Emery, Football, Premier League, Arsenal

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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