Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had a dig at his opposite part over in west London claiming it was Arsenals philosophy to never play negative football, yet at the same time the Frenchman has been receiving criticism over sticking to the Gunners style of attacking football.
Chelsea however has managed to manoeuvre themselves into title contention by playing the exact type of football that Wenger hates to see played.
Just last week after losing to the Blues at Anfield Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers accused his Chelsea counterpart of not just parking one bus, but two buses in front of the Chelsea goal.
Arsenal meanwhile can secure 4th place on Sunday with a win over West Brom and secure Champions league football for the 17th time since Wenger has been in charge of the club, with the Gunners boss assuring that his team will win with style and not resort to counter attacking play that has been so successful for Mourinho.
People however are starting to ask if the Portuguese manager’s style of football is what owner Roman Abramovich wants to see played at Stamford Bridge.
When asked if he would ever consider “parking the bus” Wenger told the Daily Star: “Park the bus? No. Never. We continue to make goals in some of these games.
“Our policy is to try to play our game. It’s the quality of our players. The system of the team has to adapt to the quality of the players because we have so many attacking players. We just play to our strengths.
“Sometimes, unfortunately, it has not worked for us this season but you have to go for a style.
“I accept that has sometimes caused us problems but I would not change anything.
“We have to analyse and ask why sometimes. And it is a regret we haven’t been more defensive but there are special circumstances, like when we played Chelsea and Manchester City with ten men.
“The only really bad performance, when you can say, ‘Yes, we were outplayed’, was on the day at Liverpool.
“A style is a long-term plan. Short term you can always change and that is dictated by the confidence of the team, which is in turn dictated by the results.
“You cannot swim against the tide. Sometimes the team needs to be reassured by being a bit less offensive.”
Meanwhile the 64-year-old manager is saying he will field his best team against Norwich even if they do secure 4th place on Sunday.
He said: “I feel we have a duty to the rest of the league.
“Our target is to get maximum points at the end of the season, no matter what the results this weekend.
“I will absolutely try to achieve that and at Arsenal Football Club we have a responsibility to be fair, even if it goes well on Sunday.
“I will also tell you now we will not be buying in the summer for the sake of it.
“People say we want a striker but I say I want a midfield player more, or a defender.
“I can get a player to help Olivier Giroud in attack but I do not expect to be doing any business until July or August because I have always believed that in a World Cup year nothing really happens until that is over.”
