You’re never far away from a Jose Mourinho jibe. No one is safe. But if you’re Arsene Wenger, you’re pretty much guaranteed at least 5 a season. The “Special One” versus the “Specialist in failure” is a battle as old as time, the Montagues and Capulets of 2015, if you will. (Or, to bring it even more up to date, the left and right Twix of football).
Whilst Arsenal’s home fans chanted “boring boring Chelsea” during the goalless draw at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, if you looked carefully you could see Mourinho whip out his notebook and turn to page 7 ‘Public Put Downs’ and start scribbling.
A point against Arsenal yesterday came as a surprise to no one; mainly because it ensured that Chelsea will win the Premier League title if they beat Leicester City and Crystal Palace in their next two games. We’ve all learnt that if Mourinho doesn’t have to win then chances are he won’t. Fair enough.
The Arsenal fans, clinging on for a win in order to keep them awake between now and Wembley, vented their frustration at the away side and termed their style of football in the 0-0 draw “boring”. Well, good for them. At least Chelsea gave them something to shout about.
The Chelsea boss, surprisingly, took exception to this and threw a not-so-thinly veiled swipe at Arsenal’s inability to win the Premier League title since 2004 –
If you support a club and you wait, wait, wait for so many years without a Premier League title, then that’s boring.
And why stop there? Jose continued his bi-annual criticism of Mr Wenger by pointing out that it was he who replaced the in-form forward Olivier Giroud with the form-injured Theo Walcott during the dying minutes of the game.
The Chelsea boss’ penultimate dig, was to point out that his ‘boring’ team, have scored the second highest number of goals in the league this season and are on their way to winning their first league title in five years. Before closing his set by questioning who in fact the Arsenal fans were labelling dull –
“Maybe Arsenal’s fans were not singing to us.”
I don’t know about you, but I smell a sitcom.
