Arsene Wenger oversaw a monster 828 Premier League games as Arsenal boss and the Frenchman played a huge role in the evolution of the league following his appointment in 1996.
Wenger went on to win three league titles in north London and cement himself as the club’s greatest ever manager since the days of Herbert Chapman.
His 22-year spell with the Gunners was laden with peaks and, eventually, troughs but the toxic conclusion to his tenure certainly wasn’t enough to taint Wenger’s legacy.
During his time at Arsenal, Wenger duelled some of the all-time greats. Arsenal’s rivalry with Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United is widely regarded as the fiercest and most competitive in Premier League history, while his battles with Jose Mourinho were always box office.
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) August 15, 2022🗣 “I had a lot of aggravations with [José] Mourinho at the time because I felt that Chelsea were the first club that came in and spent money they didn’t earn.”
Arsène Wenger on who he felt his biggest rival was during his management at Arsenal. pic.twitter.com/F6RRsOApg2
In an interview with Sky Sports (via Football Daily) on the Premier League’s 30th birthday, Arsene revealed who he felt his biggest rival was during his lengthy managerial post at Arsenal.
“Well, basically I would say it is always a big game. A game that decides the championship and, at the time, it was more Man United and Chelsea as well. But, my rivalry was always with the clubs than with the person [manager], I never made any statements on a personal level,” said the former Gunners boss.
“I had a lot of aggravations with [José] Mourinho at the time because I felt that Chelsea were the first club that came in and spent money they didn’t earn,” he revealed.
Despite Wenger’s claim, there’s no doubting that his spat with Mourinho was very much personal. The feud began in 2005 when the former Arsenal boss called out his counterpart’s overly cautious tactics to which Mourinho responded by calling Wenger a “voyeur”.
Escalations were infrequent until the “special one” returned for a second spell at Chelsea in 2013. He labelled Wenger a “specialist in failure” and the pair clashed on the touchline in October 2014 amid a 2-0 victory for the Blues. The pair continued to jab at one another in the years that followed before a mutual respect began to manifest towards the end of Wenger’s tenure.
While the Frenchman boasted a woeful record against his biggest rival – winning just two of 19 meetings – Wenger did have the last laugh in 2017 as Arsenal beat Mourinho’s United 2-0.
The pair have since worked with each other in the media, and it’s clear that any bad blood from yesteryear has been swept under the carpet.
