Shoving match with Arsene Wenger not an issue for Jose Mourinho in Chelsea’s 2-0 win

Managers Arsene Wenger of Arsenal and Jose Mourinho manager of Chelsea clash during the English Premier League match at Stamford Bridge on October 4, 2014 in London, England. Shaun Botterill / Getty IShow more

CHELSEA 2 ARSENAL 0

Chelsea - Hazard (pen) 27', Costa 78'

Premier League correspondent

LONDON // Both Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger sought to play down their touchline spat after squaring up to each other during Chelsea's 2-0 win over Arsenal on Sunday.

Wenger, angered by Gary Cahill’s foul on Alexis Sanchez, stalked down the touchline and ended up pushing Mourinho, but afterwards tried to laugh off the incident.

“If I push you,” he said, “then you will know what a push is. This was just a little one.”

Although he denied it, the episode seemed to sum up Wenger's frustration as his run without a victory over Mourinho reached 12 games.

“I wanted to go from A to B, and somebody confronted me in between without any sign,” Wenger said with an air of obvious mischief. “B was Sanchez to see if he was injured.”

Asked what Mourinho had said to him, he replied, “Honestly, I don’t listen to what he says,” and, when further pressed on whether a manager of his experience should be involved in shoving rivals, he said, “I trust you will teach me all the moral lessons in the next three weeks.”

Mourinho protested his innocence. “A football pitch is a football pitch,” he said. “I’ve done so many wrong things in football … but not this time. I was just in my technical area.”

He confirmed Thibaut Courtois, who was forced off with a head injury after a collision with Sanchez, had gone to hospital for tests but said there was “nothing special”.

The victory leaves Chelsea five points clear at the top of the Premier League and, while Mourinho was keen to stress that October is too early to draw any conclusions, he was clearly delighted with how his side had played. “They gave us a difficult game and we could deal with it without problems. At 1-0 up the game was in the pocket, almost.”

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