Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and Manchester United counterpart Jose Mourinho have often clashed off the field but goalkeeper Petr Cech has said the pair share a common trait as motivation for success.
Wenger and Mourinho have had a fierce rivalry since the Portuguese manager moved to England in 2004 and, in the latest exchange of blows between the managers, a book earlier this year claimed that Mourinho wanted to ‘break’ the Frenchman’s face.
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“They are different but there is one thing they have in common and that is, they don’t like defeats,” Cech, 34, said at a recent Guinness World Records promotional event.
Cech was Mourinho's undisputed No 1 during his highly decorated first spell at Chelsea. Between 2004 and 2007, they won two Premier League titles together, two League Cups, and the 2007 FA Cup.
Upon Mourinho’s return to Chelsea, they won the domestic double of league and League Cup in 2015, although Cech had been displaced as No 1 by Belgian Thibaut Courtois.
It led to Cech’s move between the London rivals in the summer of 2015 as he went in search of regular football.
“I think this is the driving force behind the success of both of them,” Cech said. “Because you cannot last for such a long time if you don’t have the commitment and the hunger and if you are not doing everything to avoid defeat.”
Third-placed Arsenal host struggling Swansea City in the Premier League on Saturday, while sixth-placed United travel to take on fourth-placed Liverpool at Anfield on Monday.
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