Jose Mourinho rejects 'bad guy' label and refers to Arsene Wenger as 'Monsieur Polite' as spat continues

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho does not accept that Arsène Wenger is always ‘Monsieur Polite’

Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger are in a war of words (Getty Images)

Jose Mourinho argued on Sunday night that he should not be seen as the bad guy in his disputes with Arsène Wenger.

The former Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson, who worked for Wenger as the club’s goalkeeping coach, on Sunday labelled Mourinho “a bully, boring, despicable and disrespectful”. Wilson said the barbs Mourinho had directed at the Arsenal manager and his Manchester City counterpart Manuel Pellegrini were typical of his talent for “inaccurate self-publicity”.

However, while attempting to put on a diplomatic front after his side’s 2-0 FA Cup defeat at Manchester City, the Chelsea manager retorted: “The only thing I feel is that I was very quiet in my place and somebody spoke not in a nice way about us. After that I don’t accept one is always Monsieur Polite and the other one is always the bad guy. I don’t accept that. I am sorry.”

Mourinho admitted that only the defeats to Basel in the Champions League had been as bad as Chelsea’s display at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, although he criticised the performance of the referee, Phil Dowd.

“We could speak about how Manchester City did not play in midweek,” he said. “We could speak about how John Terry did not play. We could speak about how, when they put pressure on Phil, he couldn’t cope. But let’s be pragmatic and simple and say the best team won.”

The difference between this game and the recent Etihad encounter won comfortably by Chelsea could, Mourinho argued, be seen in Eden Hazard’s performance. This time, City managed to contain the player who his manager argues is the best young footballer on the planet.

“We couldn’t get Eden Hazard into positions from which he was a threat,” he said. “The ball was not arriving to him, so the kid was coming back into midfield and it was more difficult for him.”