English Premiership: Arsene Wenger emphasised yesterday he sees no reason to apologise to Jose Mourinho for remarks he has made about Chelsea as he specified for the first time he is considering legal action against the former Porto coach for describing him "a voyeur" with "a sickness".
Wenger will decide over the forthcoming international break whether to launch proceedings for what he called "a personal attack" that had "hurt" him, and seemed to suggest his Chelsea counterpart should say sorry: "I feel when you attack somebody individually you have to apologise unless you stick to your guns and you think you are right."
He appeared to imply Mourinho had not stuck to his guns in offering to apologise if Wenger did the same for making what the Portuguese saw as too many remarks about Chelsea. The Frenchman has no intention of saying sorry or ceasing to talk about Chelsea and seemed unimpressed that Mourinho had linked the two matters.
He said: "I am always ready to apologise if I feel I have done something wrong. I do not link that with an apology from someone else. If I feel I have done something wrong I say: 'Okay, I have done something wrong, I am sorry'."
Mourinho has insisted he never set out to hurt Wenger, but the Arsenal manager sounded sceptical - "You believe what you want" - and did not rule out going to court. "Of course, I did not think about the Football Association," he said. "I thought about legal action."
He said he had not consulted lawyers, but would reflect on the situation over the break. He was reluctant to take things farther "because I am not in the game for that, but at some stage you have to be firm". Ruling out an apology - "I don't see what I can apologise for" - he said he no longer wanted to talk about his dispute with Mourinho but reserved the right to discuss Chelsea. He said he was never "especially keen" to talk about them, but added: "I will still give my opinion about Chelsea if I want to. Nothing will stop me. We are not in a dictatorship."
Mourinho had underlined his antipathy towards Arsenal by saying he hoped Manchester United finished second to Chelsea in the league. "I have nothing against that," Wenger said. "That's an opinion I accept."
Arsenal welcome struggling Sunderland to Highbury this afternoon. Manager Mick McCarthy admitted yesterday his struggling side's problems have been compounded by the flying starts fellow new boys Wigan and West Ham have enjoyed in the English Premiership.
Sunderland won the Championship ahead of the Latics by seven points last season, and were a full 21 clear of the Hammers, who earned their place in the top flight via the play-offs.
However, McCarthy's men are rooted to the foot of the Premiership table on just five points after losing their last three league games, while Wigan, astonishingly and contrary to all predictions, are second behind leaders Chelsea while Alan Pardew's men lie ninth.
Sunderland head for Arsenal knowing things could get worse before they get better, but McCarthy insists last Saturday's 4-1 drubbing by Portsmouth at the Stadium of Light has only made him more determined to get it right. "I guess the difficulties of my job and the players' job and the club at the minute are just being compounded by the fact Wigan are flying and West Ham are having a good time as well," he said.
"That makes it increasingly hard. I had a nice phone call from (Wigan manager) Paul Jewell this week. We played them - and he knows we played them off the park for most of the game - and he felt perhaps things had gone his way and he was glad of that and it could turn, and he still feels that way."
Sections of the crowd were vociferous in their condemnation of last Saturday's performance, with goalkeeper Kelvin Davis, who could yet be taken out of the firing line at Highbury, singled out for special attention. However, McCarthy is refusing to panic and is confident there is plenty of time in which to stage a recovery.
"We are not going to do that, I don't think there's a case for that at all. The point I make about Wigan and West Ham - there's a lot of games to be played yet, of course, for us to start winning and perhaps them to go the other way. Who knows?
"When you step up a level, step up in class . . . We have been punished for some mistakes. Sometimes I don't think the teams have really out-played us, overrun us."
