Wenger: Silly and disrespectful Mourinho has embarrassed Chelsea

Arsene Wenger claimed that Jose Mourinho has embarrassed Chelsea with his “silly and disrespectful” remarks about the Arsenal manager.

The Chelsea boss branded Wenger a “specialist in failure” on Friday as the war of words between the two managers moved up a gear.

The only thing I know is that it’s more embarrassing for Chelsea than for me

Arsene Wenger

Mourinho’s comments came after the Frenchman claimed that the Chelsea manager’s refusal to acknowledge his side as title contenders was due to a “fear of failure”.

But Wenger labelled Mourinho’s comments as “embarrassing” for Chelsea following his side’s 2-1 FA Cup fifth-round win over Liverpool.

“I do not want to go into those silly, disrespectful remarks,” Wenger told BT Sport. “I never spoke about him in that press conference and I will not start that [now].

“The only thing I know is that it’s more embarrassing for Chelsea than for me.”

The Arsenal manager later added in his post-match news conference: “I am embarrassed for him. I’m not interested in the subject – that is really genuine.”

Wenger’s comments came after Mourinho took another swipe at the Arsenal manager on Saturday, insisting that he does not respect the Frenchman’s past achievements.

“When he says that I am afraid of failure he is not respecting my past and because he does not respect this I do not respect his past,” Mourinho said after his side’s FA Cup defeat at Manchester City on Saturday.

“That’s my answer. It’s an answer that doesn’t make me happy, but an answer that I think he deserves.”