Arsene Wenger last night hit back at Jose Mourinho’s “silly, disrespectful remark” regarding his achievements as Arsenal manager, claiming the comments bring “embarrassment” on Chelsea.
The Gunners boss was speaking after seeing his side reach the FA Cup quarter-finals following the 2-1 win over Liverpool.
The result was a perfect response to not only Arsenal’s 5-1 loss to Liverpool a week ago, but also to Mourinho’s barbed claim on Friday that Wenger was a “specialist in failure” after suffering a trophy drought.
The Portuguese made the comments in response to earlier ones from Wenger in which the Frenchman claimed any team which says they are not in the title race – as Mourinho has done countless times this season – does so out of fear of falling short of their ambition.
Wenger insists his comments were not aimed at Mourinho and slammed his rival for his controversial riposte.
“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,” he said. “The only thing I know is it’s more embarrassing for Chelsea than for me.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers felt his side were wrongly denied a certain penalty kick which could well have changed the outcome of last night’s game at the Emirates.
The visitors were awarded one penalty when Podolski tripped Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard converted, but it was another incident in the area that became the focus of much of the post-match analysis.
Referee Howard Webb ruled Oxlade-Chamberlain committed no foul when he went in hard on Suarez, although replays clearly showed it was a blatant penalty.
“We’re bitterly disappointed not to get another penalty,” he said. “It was more clear than the first one. The second one is clear. Luis got a touch and young Alex has taken him out. It was a strange decision.”
