Mourinho threatened to break Arsene Wenger's face

25 September 2016 - 02:00 By The Daily Telegraph, London

Jose Mourinho has refused to deny claims in a new book that he wanted to "break Arsène Wenger's face", but insisted he had a civilised meeting with the Arsenal manager recently. The Manchester United manager also suggested that the author of the allegations was driven by a desire to make money off the back of his name and said there is no risk of the book threatening William Shakespeare in the literary stakes.Rob Beasley, a former Sun journalist, alleges in Jose Mourinho: Up Close And Personal that the former Chelsea manager's enmity for Wenger ran so deep that he once wanted to physically fight the Frenchman after reacting angrily to critical comments his rival made about Chelsea's sale of Spanish midfielder Juan Mata to United in January 2014.Mourinho is alleged to have said: "When Mr Wenger criticises CFC and Man United over the deal with Mata? I will find him one day outside a football pitch and I will break his face.story_article_left1"Quizzed about the claims, Mourinho said: "It is the same thing. I am happy. He [Beasley] made his money, that is fine for me."I met Arsène Wenger a couple of weeks ago [at a managers' meeting] and like civilised people we shook hands, we sat on the same table, we have dinner together with other people, we exchanged ideas."Asked if he felt let down by Beasley, with whom he is thought to have had a close relationship, Mourinho added: "You can see how close he was."Meanwhile, Wenger has dismissed the suggestion that Chelsea's recent dominance over Arsenal was down to Mourinho and instead claimed that the strength of their players was decisive."I haven't read the book and I certainly won't read it," said Wenger. "I'm not in a destructive mode, ever. I'm more constructive."When it was put to him that the balance of power shifted following the arrival of Mourinho in 2004, Wenger said: "They had strong teams. They had top teams. When they started to beat us they had [Arjen] Robben, [Didier] Drogba, [Frank] Lampard, [John] Terry. Exceptional players."It's always down to the quality of players. They were physically strong, stronger than us, yes. They had [Michael] Essien, Ashley Cole who joined them and a young Petr Cech."The matches between Chelsea and Arsenal, however, were especially one-sided when Mourinho was in the dugout. Wenger's only win was in the Community Shield last year, with eight defeats and six draws in the other matches.Guus Hiddink, Roberto di Matteo, Rafael Benítez and Carlo Ancelotti also had winning records at Chelsea against Wenger, who was dominant in matches against Chelsea managers earlier in his career, such as Ruud Gullit, Claudio Ranieri and Gianluca Vialli.Antonio Conte is the 12th Chelsea manager Wenger has faced and he is adamant that Arsenal are now in a position where they can compete...

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