Wenger, Mourinho Don't Regret Shoving Match
Arsène Wenger has refused to apologize for pushing José Mourinho during the first half of Chelsea's 2-0 win over Arsenal.
Wenger had been infuriated by Gary Cahill’s poor challenge on Alexis Sánchez on the touchline, a tackle which earned the England centre-half a caution, and marched out of his own technical area and across that of his opposite number. Mourinho stood in the Frenchman’s way, ushering him back, with the Arsenal manager pushing him back. The pair clashed again seconds later with the fourth official, Jonathan Moss, duly stepping in to separate them and the referee, Martin Atkinson, subsequently speaking to both.
“What is there to regret?” he asked. “I wanted to go from A to B, and somebody confronted me before B without any sign of welcome. B was Sánchez, to see how badly he was injured.” The Arsenal manager suggested Cahill’s foul was worthy of a red card and, asked what Mourinho had said to him, added: “Honestly, I don’t listen to what he says. Push him? You would know if I really tried to push [him]. Come on.”
Wenger and Mourinho refused to acknowledge each other after the match.
“It becomes heated because it’s a big game, big clubs, big rivals, an important match for both teams,” said Mourinho, who has not lost in 12 meetings with Wenger. “These conditions make a game of emotions. After that,there are two technical areas. One for me, one for him. He was coming into my technical area and not for the right reasons, to give some technical instructions. He was coming to push the referee for a red card, and I didn’t like that.
“But no problem. I think Jonathan Moss did a good job, and Atkinson too. I’ve done so many wrong things in football, sometimes due to emotion, but not this time. This time I was just in my technical area and it was not my problem. Game over. Story over.”