Courtesy of Flickr user: Ronnie Macdonald
Chelsea FC manager Jose Mourinho took another thinly veiled shot at Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in his pre-match press conference before the sides face off Saturday afternoon. Mourinho was asked his opinion of Wenger and how Arsenal has stuck with the manager for so long, 1,000 games to be specific, and Mourinho responded with his usual underhanded sass:
"“I admire him and I admire Arsenal because it’s not possible to have 1000 matches unless the club is also a fantastic club in the way they support their manager in the bad moments – especially when the bad moments were quite a lot – so I admire the manager and I admire the club.”"
There sure have been quite a lot of bad moments for Arsene Wenger since the Frenchman won his last trophy eight years ago. Cup collapses, late season Premier League swoons, and most memorably the epic collapse in the League Cup against Birmingham City. This is just the latest in the feud between the two which was capped off by Mourinho calling Wenger a “specialist in failure” and giving the press and headline writers material for months on end.
Mourinho likely respects Wenger because of his accomplishments but there is no doubt that he takes special pleasure in defeating the smug Frenchman who likes to stick in nose in other teams’ business. Wenger always comments on what Chelsea does and was especially vocal about the Blues selling Juan Mata to a direct rival even though that seems to be his business plan these days with the sales of Samir Nasri, Robin Van Persie, and more. Mourinho says there is no extra significance to this weekend’s derby but we all know that isn’t the truth.
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