Photos: Arsene Wenger Pushes Jose Mourinho During Stamford Bridge Rivalry Match

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TSB News
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Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho’s rivalry spilled over at Stamford Bridge on Sunday when the Arsenal manager shoved his counterpart and the pair failed to shake hands at the full-time whistle.  Wenger was furious with Gary Cahill’s rash tackle on Alexis Sanchez with 20 minutes gone which saw the Chelsea defender booked in a fiercely-contested encounter.  The Frenchman came out of his technical area to gesticulate to referee Martin Atkinson before then raising his arms to the oncoming Mourinho. 

It only took 20 minutes for the two managers, who have a long-running feud, to come to blows during the first half of the league clash

Wenger, 64, then pushed Mourinho in the chest with the Chelsea manager, 13 years Wenger’s junior, stumbling backwards but remaining on his feet.  The Arsenal boss turned around before returning to the scene with his hands in his pockets before momentarily going head-to-head with Mourinho.  Atkinson called both managers over for a word appearing to hint that they would be sent to the stands if there were any further issues.

In footballing terms the Chelsea manager is on top of the managers' feud, remaining unbeaten by Wenger in all competitions after 12 attempts

Wenger and Mourinho continued to exchange verbal insults throughout the first half with Chelsea’s assistant manager Rui Faria and Arsenal’s No 2 Steve Bould also said to be involved. The pair didn’t shake hands at full-time and Mourinho said: ‘For me, it is over. But the technical area is very clear – I have mine, he has his and he cannot come to mine, especially to put pressure on the referee to give a red card to my player.

Final warning: Referee Martin Atkinson was then called over to have words with the two managers, who, surprisingly, were not sent to the stands over the childish tiff

‘So I just told him ‘leave my technical area and don’t come back please’.’ Then asked if it was a big deal that Wenger had put his hands on him, Mourinho said: ‘No, it is no problem.’

Wenger said: ‘No. What is to regret after that? ‘I wanted to go from A to B and somebody confronted me in between without any sign of welcome. ‘B was Sanchez, to see how badly he was injured.’

To compound the misery for Wenger, who hasn’t beaten Mourinho in their previous 11 encounters, Eden Hazard scored from the spot after he was fouled by Laurent Koscielny in the penalty area to give the hosts the lead.

I know Jose Mourinho can be over bearing at times (as evidenced at his time at Real Madrid) but aren’t these veteran coaches leaving a bad precedence for the younger ones/players?

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