Arsene Wenger is a “specialist in failure”, according to Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.
The Blues boss was responding to the Arsenal manager’s claim the Premier League title is “Chelsea’s to lose”.
Chelsea hold a one-point advantage over the Gunners, with Manchester City a further two points back.
Under Wenger, Arsenal have not won a trophy since 2005 and Mourinho said: “Eight years without a piece of silverware, that’s failure.”
Mourinho continued: “He is a specialist in failure. I’m not. So if he is right and I am afraid of failure it is because I didn’t fail many times.”
The Portuguese manager, who won the Premier League twice in his first spell as Chelsea manager between 2004 and 2007, has won league titles in four countries, as well as the Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan.
The last trophy Wenger won was the FA Cup in 2005, and Mourinho says his current employers would not tolerate so long without silverware.
“He is a specialist in failure,” said Mourinho. “I’m not. So if he is right and I am afraid of failure it is because I didn’t fail many times.
“The reality is he’s a specialist because eight years without a piece of silverware, that’s failure. If I do that in Chelsea, eight years, I leave and don’t come back.”
This is not the first time Mourinho has criticised Wenger, the Blues boss having described the Frenchman as a “voyeur” in 2005 after his rival questioned Chelsea’s transfer policy.
“I think he is one of these people who is a voyeur,” said Mourinho in October 2005. “He likes to watch other people. There are some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks, speaks, speaks about Chelsea.”
Chelsea, who are currently preparing for Saturday’s FA Cup fifth-round tie against Manchester City on Saturday, host Arsenal on 22 March in a match likely to have a significant bearing on the eventual destination of the Premier League title.
Mourinho has previously said his side are not title contenders, describing the Blues as a “little horse” in the Premier League race.
Brendan Rodgers, the manager of fourth-placed Liverpool, continued that analogy on Thursday by saying his side “may be the chihuahuas that run in between the horses’ legs” as they look to make a late challenge for the title.
However Wenger says that, despite Mourinho’s protestations and Rodgers’s claim his side are outsiders, all four teams are in the mix.
“Many teams are in it and it will be very tight until the end,” he said.
“I say yes we are in it, yes we will have a go for it, we will absolutely give everything to go for it and if we don’t do I will take responsibility for it, but I just see it like that.”
Source: BBC
“[katogoaward]”
