Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said that Jose Mourinho’s comments about him were embarrassing for Chelsea as he preferred to talk about the Gunners 2-1 win over Liverpool in the 5th round of the FA Cup.
During his press conference on Friday Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho had called Arsene Wenger a ‘specialist in failure’ referring to the fact that Arsenal has not won anything since 2005, and when asked about the Portuguese managers comments Wenger said: “I am embarrassed for him, honestly.
“First of all I would say that I didn’t speak about him at all in my press conference, and I have no more to say… I am more disappointed for Chelsea than for me.
“I am not interested in the subject at all, and that is really genuine. If you are interested, and you have nothing better to do in your life, you are free to do it.
“But honestly, I cannot force my interest in things that are not interesting for me. I love football and I’m sorry to disappoint you, but what interests me is what happens on the pitch.”
Wenger went on to say in his interview reported by Sky Sports that it was a vital win for Arsenal following their defeat at Anfield.
Wenger explained: “It was vital for us to respond to the disappointing performance we had against Liverpool last week.
“It was vital as well because we had an opportunity to go to the quarter-final of the FA Cup. I am very pleased with the intensity of our commitment and our response, our determination.
“You could feel there was a clinical desire in my team to take every opportunity to ‘kill’ them. That’s why it was a great game between two good teams, and overall it was a fantastic FA Cup tie.
“Many people questioned the FA Cup but like today it delivers a great football performance.”
Alex Oxlade Chamberlin scored first for Arsenal with Lukas Podolski adding a second just after half-time before Liverpool pulled one back with a Steven Gerrard penalty, and then had another appeal turned down by Howard Webb while stand in goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski made a series of good saves.
Wenger said: “Look, Liverpool is a very strong team. They had some chances but you should not forget that we as well had some very good chances on top of that.
“They were in a position where they had to take the initiative because they were 2-0 down; they had to throw absolutely everything forward. They are good enough to create chances against any team, but we were resilient, focused on defending well.
“Overall it looked yes that they could score, but it looked always that when we won the ball we had a chance to go to the goal and score as well.”
When speaking about the Luis Suarez penalty appeal after a heavy challenge from Oxlade-Chamberlin Wenger said: “Maybe I have to watch it again, you know that I rate Suarez as a player but I think if we had him in the team we would have a few more free-kicks! There was contact, I don’t deny that, but he is good to make more of it.”
Wenger also gave young Frenchman Yaya Sanogo a first start in attack and was impressed with the performance he put in saying: “For a first performance he was excellent. He was always in the game; he was a handful for them.”
“It’s his first official game basically; he played one game in the reserves for 60 minutes. Considering the intensity of the game, he was absolutely excellent.”
