Warning to Arsenal: avoid the Mourinho handshake!

Arsenal's first key test will come in the final minutes LEADING UP TO KICK-OFF.

Because there is a good chance that Mourinho will look to mentally affect Arsenal's XI.

Does Mourinho look to manipulate the minds of others without the other realising it?

I believe he tries to, and furthemore, on key occasions been successful.

He has the intelligence to realise that the mind is supremely powerful and can prove to be the decisive factor in determining if a sportsman is to win or lose.

He also realises that a lot of football coaches aren't aware enough to realise this. So when he took his football coaching badges he introduced his own textbook into the syllabus: a psychology manual.

Mourinho thought: Everyone talks about tactics and fitness. But I will add psychological training as part of a footballer's life. This will give me a massive advantage.

Listen to some Chelsea players or Steve Clarke and I get the sense that they are brainwashed. Their individuals personalities have merged into one that imitates their manager: Mourinho.

Mourinho has succcessfully trained his players and backroom staff to think like him. And he had trained himself to think that he was the best; that he was the 'special one'.

Psychology is Mourinho's best asset.

Not only does he know how to psychologically affect himself and his own team. He knows how to affect players in the opposition team.

Never forget the moment before the league cup final where Mourinho staked out Steve Gerrard in the tunnel, and ignoring all other Liverpool players, shook him by the hand.

The look on Gerrard's face was one of semi-horror. Gerrard knew that this would not look good to Liverpool fans watching at home, given the vast speculation regarding his future relationship with Chelsea.

Mourinho gambled that Gerrard would be troubled and this would affect his game. And boy did he gamble well.

Gerrard went on to play the most lifeless game I have ever seen from him. But more than this, he went onto score the crucial equaliser for CHELSEA.

He started the match as Stevie G, and ended the match as Stevie OG!

Think also how Mourinho targeted Steve Gerrard's best mate, Jamie Carragher, for abuse. I have very rarely seen a coach of a side get into such a visible verbal slanging match DURING a match. Was it in the heat of the moment? Or was it a deliberate targeting of Gerrard's best friend in order to further affect Gerrard's mental state.

Do not doubt that Mourinho knew what he was doing.

The handshake experiment was first on view before the second leg of the semi versus Man Utd. This time he made it his brief to shake the hands of all Man Utd players. Was it simply a very kind gesture on his behalf?

Or did Mourinho think: Get them on your side and it will sub-conciously make it more difficult for them to attack my players like they had against Arsenal.

Man Utd went onto lose their first domestic semi for decades. With a full team they lacked the killer spirit that they had previously showed against Arsenal, and most recently against Newcastle.

It was this success that prompted Mourinho to try it out on Stevie G.

I write this now because I believe that Mourinho might try such tactics tonight to get at Ashley Cole (given his similarity to the Gerrard situation re transfer speculation), or, alternatively, the whole Arsenal team.

I warn Ashley Cole and the other Arsenal players, watch out for Mourinho if he comes your way. Reject his advances and his psychological trickery.

Overcome this test and you can look forward to 90 minutes of fully-focused playability.

In the meanwhile I ask all you football-watchers to monitor Mourinho and expose his subtle psychological methods.