Arsène
Wenger has refused to apologise for pushing José Mourinho as the rival
managers were involved in an ugly first-half spat, while Chelsea were
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 across that of
his opposite number. Mourinho stood in the Frenchman’s way, ushering him
back, with the Arsenal manager pushing him back. The pair clashed again
seconds later with the fourth official, Jonathan Moss, duly stepping in
to separate them and the referee, Martin Atkinson, subsequently
speaking to both.
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, who share a strained relationship born of regular clashes
since Mourinho arrived in English football in 2004, 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.”
Mourinho was less comfortable discussing the issue surrounding
Courtois, who was floored after sustaining a 10th- minute head injury
when connecting with Alexis Sánchez’s right thigh. Two of the home
side’s medical staff sprinted on to the pitch to assess the Belgian and,
having examined him for 56 seconds and spoken to the player, were
satisfied the goalkeeper could play on. Yet 13 minutes later he had sunk
to his knee with liquid coming out of his right ear, was substituted,
assessed by a Premier League appointed doctor in the dressing room and
taken to hospital for precautionary tests. It was later confirmed he had
suffered mild concussion and was kept overnight in hospital for
observation.
Chelsea’s staff technically followed the new guidelines set out by
the Premier League for this season – Fifa have since stipulated a
three-minute timeout should be taken in such cases to make a more
thorough assessment of a player’s state of fitness – with the incident
merely serving to underline how limited the recently adopted measures
are. “He had hospital tests as a precaution,” said Mourinho. “But we
think nothing to worry about.
A
renowned US-based rapper, singer, songwriter, actress, and television
personality Onika Tanya Maraj, popularly known as Nicki Minaj, became a
year older on December 8, 2013, Sunday.
Arsène
Wenger has refused to apologise for pushing José Mourinho as the rival
managers were involved in an ugly first-half spat, while Chelsea were
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.
