Mourinho, Wenger feud back on

LONDON – Jose Mourinho has reignited his feud with Arsene Wenger after claiming Arsenal’s players deliberately set out to get Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien sent off in Sunday’s Premiership clash at Highbury.

Chelsea’s 2-0 win ensured the champions will go into the busy Christmas and New Year programme with a nine-point cushion over Manchester United, their nearest rivals. But Mourinho ensured that all the headlines would focus on another clash between him and Wenger by insisting that Arsenal’s players had over-reacted to an incident in which Essien caught Arsenal fullback Lauren with an elbow in the first half.The Chelsea manager claimed Arsenal had attempted to capitalise on the notoriety Essien earned with a horrific lunge at Liverpool’s Dietmar Hamann during a Champions League clash earlier this month.”I saw ten players jumping on one,” Mourinho claimed “It looked like a strategy, like they were going to use the image Essien has at this moment and in the first body-to-body situation we have to jump on him.”Wenger, who threatened to sue Mourinho earlier this year after being branded a “voyeur” by his Chelsea counterpart, scoffed at the claim.”Essien was a straight red in my opinion – it was just in front of the dugout.The ref was not brave enough to make the decision but it was a straight red.He did not play the ball he played the player.”We did not even speak about this before the game.If it was a deliberate strategy, we hid it very well.”The Arsenal manager had said before the game that he would be prepared to shake Mourinho’s hand.He did not get the chance however as the Chelsea manager raced straight down the tunnel on the final whistle, although the missed opportunity for a reconciliation did not trouble Wenger.”I must say that frankly that does not stop me from sleeping,” he said.Wenger was more aggrieved over a disallowed goal from Robin van Persie that would have given his side the lead mid-way through the first half.Television replays showed that van Persie was onside when Freddie Ljungberg’s pass found him.”Eighty-five percent of these type of games are decided on the first goal, so we feel that the referee made a very bad decision,” Wenger said.”At that moment we were playing well, we had just hit the post and we scored a goal.I would have loved to see the game with us being 1-0 up instead of them being 1-0 up.It is easy to be strong defensively when you are leading.”Wenger conceded that his side, now languishing in eighth place and 20 points behind the leaders, had left themselves with too much to do.”We are too far behind Chelsea to consider that we will challenge them from the championship,” the Frenchman acknowledged, although he refused to accept that the title race is over as far as other contenders were concerned.Mourinho underlined the significance of Sunday’s victory by pointing out that his side have now completed their three most difficult fixtures – trips to Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool and won two of them.”It is only three points but it is in a stadium where you can lose three points, so at the end of the day it’s a little bit more than a victory,” Mourinho said.”Now we know that destiny is in our hands because we don’t have to play away again against the three top teams and we know they are going to drop points against each other.”Although some of the crucial decisions went against Arsenal, Chelsea bossed the match for long periods and capitalised on defensive mistakes to score their two goals.The first came six minutes before the interval when Didier Drogba played Arjen Robben clear of Arsenal right-back Kolo Toure, the Dutch winger continuing into the box to beat Jens Lehmann with a low shot that went in off the post.Then, with just over quarter of an hour left, Joe Cole caught Lauren in possession and beat Lehmann with a fine shot from the edge of the area.- Nampa-ReutersBut Mourinho ensured that all the headlines would focus on another clash between him and Wenger by insisting that Arsenal’s players had over-reacted to an incident in which Essien caught Arsenal fullback Lauren with an elbow in the first half.The Chelsea manager claimed Arsenal had attempted to capitalise on the notoriety Essien earned with a horrific lunge at Liverpool’s Dietmar Hamann during a Champions League clash earlier this month.”I saw ten players jumping on one,” Mourinho claimed “It looked like a strategy, like they were going to use the image Essien has at this moment and in the first body-to-body situation we have to jump on him.”Wenger, who threatened to sue Mourinho earlier this year after being branded a “voyeur” by his Chelsea counterpart, scoffed at the claim.”Essien was a straight red in my opinion – it was just in front of the dugout.The ref was not brave enough to make the decision but it was a straight red.He did not play the ball he played the player.”We did not even speak about this before the game.If it was a deliberate strategy, we hid it very well.”The Arsenal manager had said before the game that he would be prepared to shake Mourinho’s hand.He did not get the chance however as the Chelsea manager raced straight down the tunnel on the final whistle, although the missed opportunity for a reconciliation did not trouble Wenger.”I must say that frankly that does not stop me from sleeping,” he said.Wenger was more aggrieved over a disallowed goal from Robin van Persie that would have given his side the lead mid-way through the first half.Television replays showed that van Persie was onside when Freddie Ljungberg’s pass found him.”Eighty-five percent of these type of games are decided on the first goal, so we feel that the referee made a very bad decision,” Wenger said.”At that moment we were playing well, we had just hit the post and we scored a goal.I would have loved to see the game with us being 1-0 up instead of them being 1-0 up.It is easy to be strong defensively when you are leading.”Wenger conceded that his side, now languishing in eighth place and 20 points behind the leaders, had left themselves with too much to do.”We are too far behind Chelsea to consider that we will challenge them from the championship,” the Frenchman acknowledged, although he refused to accept that the title race is over as far as other contenders were concerned.Mourinho underlined the significance of Sunday’s victory by pointing out that his side have now completed their three most difficult fixtures – trips to Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool and won two of them.”It is only three points but it is in a stadium where you can lose three points, so at the end of the day it’s a little bit more than a victory,” Mourinho said.”Now we know that destiny is in our hands because we don’t have to play away again against the three top teams and we know they are going to drop points against each other.”Although some of the crucial decisions went against Arsenal, Chelsea bossed the match for long periods and capitalised on defensive mistakes to score their two goals.The first came six minutes before the interval when Didier Drogba played Arjen Robben clear of Arsenal right-back Kolo Toure, the Dutch winger continuing into the box to beat Jens Lehmann with a low shot that went in off the post.Then, with just over quarter of an hour left, Joe Cole caught Lauren in possession and beat Lehmann with a fine shot from the edge of the area.- Nampa-Reuters