No apology to ’specialist in failure’ Wenger

Arrogant Mourinho declines to say sorry to the Arsenal manager for earlier taunts

Lost in Explanation: Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho walks out for a training session at Cobham Training Ground. Photograph:  Andrew Matthews/PA Wire.
Lost in Explanation: Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho walks out for a training session at Cobham Training Ground. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho declined the opportunity to apologise for describing Arsene Wenger as "a specialist in failure" and merely wishes to move on ahead of Sunday's Premier League contest with Arsenal.

Mourinho in February responded to comments by Wenger with the verbal taunt, which was pored over as the managers’ relationship was analysed once more.

The Frenchman, pointing at Mourinho’s insistence that his side were outside bets for the championship, had declared that the title was Chelsea’s to lose and said anyone who claimed their team were not in the race did so out of fear of failure.

The following month Chelsea beat the Gunners 6-0, but in May Wenger ended Arsenal's nine-year silverware drought by winning the FA Cup, while Mourinho's Blues endured a trophyless season.

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“It was a consequence of something,” Mourinho said of his taunt. “It was not a deliberate first option to say something. I didn’t get an apology. I don’t apologise.”

Mourinho wants to leave the comment in the past. “You don’t need to apologise,” added Mourinho, who last season did say sorry for calling Wenger a “voyeur” during his first spell.

“To go over it, to forget it and to move forward without thinking about what happened.

“We don’t need that, finish, move and let’s go for another match with big responsibility for both of us. “We have the responsibility not to win, to give a good football match and for (the) millions of fans that both clubs have. “No problems.”