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Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has responded to Jose Mourinho’s attacks on his Arsenal record by insisting that he does not want to get involved in a war of words with his opposite number, but described the Portuguese boss’ comments as “silly and disrespectful,” before insisting that they cause more embarrassment for Chelsea than for him. Mourinho had called Wenger a “specialist in failure” earlier in the week, prompting Wenger’s response after his side’s 2-1 FA Cup victory against Liverpool.
Wenger also praised his side for the win and said that he was proud of the way that they responded to the 5-1 drubbing that they received at the hands of the same opponents a week earlier.
However much of the pre-match talk has been about Mourinho, leading Wenger to distance himself from the Chelsea manager’s mind games.
“I do not want to go into that silly, disrespectful remark. I never spoke about him in my press conference and I will not start that. The only thing I know is that it is more embarrassing for Chelsea than for me,” asserted Wenger.
Continuing on the subject of the game, Wenger said that he was proud of his team’s resilience, before refusing to be drawn on a Liverpool penalty appeal for an Alex Oxalde-Chamberlain challenge on Luis Suarez.
“I’m very proud of the way we responded to the huge defeat we had last week and that was pleasing.”
“Of course, to win makes you stronger and that was very important today. There was a lot of suspicion that we would sacrifice this game as we play on Wednesday and I think the best way to give an answer is to show how much effort we put in.”
“I’ve seen the [penalty] incident, I would have to look again [to decide], maybe maybe not.
Liverpool are a good side and they’ve shown it again today. It was a great football game where Liverpool took the initiative more than us. But we were never in a position where we had to go for it – we were 1-0 up and 2-0 up so we were more focused to protect our advantage and they’re a fantastic offensive force Liverpool.”
Watch Arsene Wenger’s interview here -
