Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho fired a broadside at Arsenal today by claiming their London rivals have received preferential treatment from the media and Premier League's fixture planners.
Relations between the two clubs plumbed new depths at the end of last season with Mourinho and champions Chelsea fined for their part in the tapping-up of Arsenal defender Ashley Cole.
Mourinho said the two clubs are treated differently.
"Some are treated as devils, some as angels," he told a news conference at the club's new training base.
"We are not so ugly to be treated like devils and I don't think Arsene Wenger and David Dein are so beautiful to be treated as angels," he said in reference to Arsenal's manager and vice-chairman.
"I went to Brazil for a holiday, I didn't go to chase players and have secret meetings with clubs." That comment referred to Arsenal's controversial attempt to buy Sevilla forward Julio Baptista.
The Brazilian said that Wenger talked to him in Brazil despite his Spanish club telling Arsenal that they did not have permission to approach the player.
"It's the same with the Premier League fixtures," Mourinho continued in his first news conference after resuming training last week.
"After the first five rounds of the Champions League this season Chelsea have an away game while Arsenal are always at home. Why do you (the media) have nothing to say about that? Is it only Jose Mourinho who looks at the fixtures who finds something very strange?" "What concerns me is the way you approach different situations in a very different way," he said.
"I am not the world's most intelligent man but I am not stupid. I understand things here, they don't change.
"Maybe in 2009 or 2010 maybe Mr Dein is not in the FA anymore and I can have a different season, or maybe Mr Kenyon (Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon) is working in the FA?" Asked what he would like to see change, he said: "A person who works in a club should not work in the FA." As usual, however, the Portuguese coach ended with a smile.
"I think with the money I had to pay them last season they should sign someone for the job," he said in reference to his FA fines.
- REUTERS
Soccer: Mourinho fans flames over Chelsea treatment
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.