War of the Words: Top 5 battles between Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho

Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho have had both physical and verbal battles over the yearsThe battle lines were drawn a decade ago. Standing in the red and white corner is the classy, suave French Professeur, the manager of Arsenal – Arsène Wenger. A staunch advocate of playing football the beautiful way, building and nurturing a team of talented players into match winners is what he stands for.In the blue corner, is the Special One – Jose Mourinho. A ruthless tactician, Mourinho returned to manage Chelsea in 2013 after a six-year gap and, for him, winning the game at all costs gains precedence over beautiful football any day.These two managers have been taking potshots at each other for almost a decade now – Mourinho being able to ruffle Wenger’s otherwise stoic demeanour like no one else can. The sight of Wenger pushing Mourinho in the chest last season is something football fans are unlikely to forget for a long time to come (the Gooners gleefully so).With the two teams facing each other for the Community Shield, the taunts and jibes have begun rolling in since last week and we take a look at some of the most controversial statements made by these two popular Premier League managers against each other.

#1 Angels and Demons in the Premier League

Mourinho started taking digs at Wenger as far back as 2005

And it all began in the summer of 2005. Piqued by the highly hectic Premier League schedule, Mourinho had gone on to suggest that the fixtures were drawn up much to the convenience of Arsenal and distress of Chelsea.

“Some clubs are treated as devils, some are treated as angels. I don’t think we are so ugly that we should be seen as the devil and I don’t think Arsène Wenger and David Dein are so beautiful that they should be viewed as angels.”

What followed next will go down in Premier League history as one of the most entertaining managerial feuds of all times. Wenger responded in kind with the following words aimed at Chelsea’s style of play.

“We live in a world where we only have winners and losers, but once a sport encourages teams who refuse to take the initiative, the sport is in danger.”

#2 Voyeurs, success and stupidity

The gloves were off when Wenger and Mourinho went head-to-head in press conferences

The year 2005 was when this rivalry between the two managers was truly cemented. After the Arsenal manager had openly criticised Chelsea’s big spending, Mourinho made his infamous statement where he referred to Wenger as a voyeur.

"I think he is one of these people who is a voyeur," he said. "He likes to watch other people.

“There are some guys who, when they are at home, they have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks and speaks and speaks about Chelsea."

This was when Wenger had gotten back with this dig:

“I find it out of order, disconnected with reality and disrespectful. When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent.”

Ouch. Mourinho won that verbal round, though, with the following retort.

“We have a file of quotes from Mr. Wenger about Chelsea in the last 12 months – it is not a file of five pages. It is a file of 120 pages.”

Was Mourinho just a tad obsessed with Wenger considering he kept count? We will never know.

#3 When statistics bolster the argument

Wenger’s Arsenal side have never beaten Mourinho’s Chelsea. Will this change?

Statistics can’t lie, can they? The reason why Mourinho has often sought refuge in them while firing his verbal volleys. The first among these came in 2008, months after Mourinho had left the Premier League.

“The English like statistics a lot. Do they know that Arsène Wenger has only 50 per cent of wins in the English league?”

His latest jibe on the number of wins was targeted at Arsenal’s poor record against Chelsea, not having defeated them in their last 13 meetings. Mourinho said about this record, “I would ask myself ‘why?’. I would try to find an answer – not because of a mental block but because I would want to try to find solutions to help my team. Try to find [a] different way, to find the reason it goes against my team all the time.”

He went on to add how he has never had such a run against any manager, except for losing twice against Tony Pulis – once when he was the manager of Crystal Palace and second, when he was with West Bromwich.

#4 Specialist in Failure?

The verbal jousting resumed last season as well

Hitting it where it hurts the most, Mourinho’s first dig at Arsenal’s trophy-less Premier League seasons was in 2010 when he remarked, “Maybe Wenger should explain to Arsenal fans how he cannot win a single little trophy since 2005.”

Mourinho took this comment a step further in 2014 by labelling Wenger a ‘specialist in failure.

“Am I afraid of failure? He is a specialist in failure. I’m not. So if one supposes he’s right and I’m afraid of failure, it’s because I don’t fail many times. So maybe he’s right. I’m not used to failing.

“But the reality is he’s a specialist because, eight years without a piece of silverware, that’s failure. If I did that in Chelsea, I’d leave and not come back to London. I don’t fear anything in football.”

Strong words these that were in response to Wenger’s comment on how any manager trying to downplay his team’s title chances has a “fear of failure”. Mourinho had continually maintained that his team was not in running for the title that season and had earlier said that Arsenal would have no excuses if they fell short of the title this season, which is what led Wenger to make that statement on managers’ ‘fear of failure’.

"It is fear to fail. If you're not in the race you cannot lose it, if you declare yourself not in the race you cannot lose it, simple as that.”

It’s quite a task keeping up with the verbal exchanges between these two!

#5 It\'s not easy to defend

The only way Wenger can hit back at his critics is by defeating Chelsea this Sunday

Before their match against Chelsea in the recently concluded Premier League season, Wenger had gone to explain why Chelsea’s style of play is what led them to win the Cup.

“What’s important for me is to do what it takes to win the game [against Chelsea]. It’s easy to defend; if we have to defend then we will defend.”

This didn’t go down too well with Mourinho who replied classically with, “It [defending] is not easy. If it was easy, he wouldn’t lose 3-1 at home to Monaco. If he defends well, he draws 0-0 against Monaco and wins in Monte Carlo. It’s not easy to defend.” That is a fair point, though.

The only way Wenger can shut his critics and Mourinho (for a short while), is by winning the match against Chelsea.