Arsène Wenger has refused to apologise for pushing José Mourinho during a first-half spat between the rival managers, with Chelsea left facing awkward questions themselves in the wake of this victory over their medical staff's initial assessment of the severity of a head injury sustained by Thibaut Courtois.
Wenger had been infuriated by Gary Cahill's poor challenge on Alexis Sánchez on the touchline – a tackle which earned the England centre-half a caution – and marched out of his own technical area and into that of his opposite number. Mourinho stood in the Frenchman's way, ushering him back, and the Arsenal manager pushed him back. The pair clashed again seconds later before fourth official Jonathan Moss duly stepped in to separate them and referee Martin Atkinson spoke to both managers.
There will be no retrospective sanction given the clash was witnessed at the time but, while the incident merely served to inflame an already tense occasion, Wenger expressed no regret. “What is there to regret?” he asked. “I wanted to go from A to B, and somebody confronted me before B without any sign of welcome. B was Sánchez, to see how badly he was injured.”
The Arsenal manager suggested Cahill’s foul was worthy of a red card and, asked what Mourinho had said to him, added: “Honestly, I don’t listen to what he says. Push him? You would know if I really tried to push [him]. Come on.”
The pair did not acknowledge each other on the final whistle, once Chelsea had reasserted their five-point lead at the top of the table and condemned Arsenal to a first league loss of the season.
“It becomes heated because it’s a big game, big clubs, big rivals, an important match for both teams,” said Mourinho, who has not lost in 12 meetings with Wenger. “These conditions make a game of emotions. After that, there are two technical areas. One for me, one for him. He was coming into my technical area and not for the right reasons, to give some technical instructions. He was coming to push the referee for a red card, and I didn’t like that.
“But no problem. I think Jonathan Moss did a good job, and Atkinson too. I’ve done so many wrong things in football, sometimes due to emotion, but not this time. This time I was just in my technical area and it was not my problem. Game over. Story over.”
Courtois concussion
Mourinho was less comfortable discussing Courtois, who was floored with a head injury in the 10th minute. Two of the home side’s medical staff examined the Belgian goalkeeper for 56 seconds, spoke to him, and were satisfied he could play on.
Yet 13 minutes later he had sunk to his knee with liquid coming out of his right ear, was substituted, and was later confirmed to have suffered mild concussion and was kept overnight in hospital. Guardian Service
