Row on the cards

Festive frostiness: Arsene Wenger (left) and Jose Mourinho.
Photograph: Ben Radford/Getty Images


Another Arsenal versus Chelsea clash, another spat between Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho.

There’s nothing unpredictable about that – Wenger and the boss of the money-no-object Premiership champions don’t really see eye to eye – but the latest instalment, coming so soon before Christmas, had more than a touch of the pantomime about it.

You’ll probably recall (unless you make a point of studiously avoiding the sports pages) that Wenger, bristling with the nearest he gets to outright rage, threatened legal action after Mourinho accused him of having an obsession with what goes on at Stamford Bridge.

Sounding alarmingly like a 1950s suburban scandal-monger, the Chelsea manager described Wenger as a “voyeur” with “a sickness” and said there were “some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks and speaks and speaks about Chelsea”.