Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho re-opens feud with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger

The Blues boss is furious with the FA's punishment for his comments in the aftermath of his side's loss to Southampton

Jose Mourinho (GETTY IMAGES)

Jose Mourinho re-opened his long-running feud with Arsene Wenger last night when he made a thinly-veiled attack on the Arsenal manager's behaviour.

Furious at having been fined £50,000 and given a suspended one-match stadium ban because of comments he made about the referee in the aftermath of Chelsea's loss to Southampton, Mourinho suggested Wenger was treated differently.

The Portguese manager suggested that referees were "afraid" to give penalties in his side's favour and was punished for doing so. He pointed to how Wenger had called Mike Dean “weak” and “naïve” after the incident between Diego Costa and Gabriel during the recent meeting of their sides at Stamford Bridge, comments that went unpunished.

“It is more difficult for me to understand is when I compare different people with different behaviours or with similar behaviours, with different words or with similar words,” he said.

“I know I’m not English. I know my English is just good enough to work in this country, but is not perfect. But the difference between “afraid” and “weak and naive”, the difference is £50,000 and a one-match stadium ban."

Without ever specifically naming the Arsenal manager, Mourinho continued: “The word “afraid” is a punishment – and a hard punishment. But to say the referee was “weak and naive”, referring to one of the top referees in this country and in Europe [Mike Dean], we can do. The only good thing of this last decision by the FA is that every manager in this country can write in a little book and, when he goes to the press conference, he knows that “afraid” costs £50,000. Weak and naïve, you can use."

Mourinho also pointed to how Wenger went unpunished for his touchline confrontation with him when their teams met at Stamford Bridge in October 2014. “There is something that, now, we know,” he said. “We can push people in the technical area. We can, no problem. So anything in the technical area, we can push.

“A word is more important than aggression. It’s good for everyone. It’s the only reason I can still walk in London without an electronic tag.”

Mourinho has a long history of sparring with Wenger, most memorably in 2005 when he referred to the Frenchman as a "voyeur" and more recently when he called the Arsenal manager a "specialist in failure".