Ferguson's explosive attack lights Wenger's touch-paper

The state of war between Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger is now official. It was made so when the Arsenal manager Wenger, ashen-faced in his anger, declared: "I have no diplomatic relations with him." This came after a thinly veiled suggestion that the Football Association should prosecute Ferguson for bringing the game into disrepute with his latest bout of psychological warfare.

The state of war between Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger is now official. It was made so when the Arsenal manager Wenger, ashen-faced in his anger, declared: "I have no diplomatic relations with him." This came after a thinly veiled suggestion that the Football Association should prosecute Ferguson for bringing the game into disrepute with his latest bout of psychological warfare.

Wenger, deeply bruised by the defeat at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday which might just finally have ruined his defence of a Premiership title won so brilliantly last season, made his announcement after claiming Ferguson was laying "explosives" before the powder- keg meeting of the clubs at Highbury next month.

Provoking Wenger's rage was the inflammatory interview - exclusive in The Independent - in which Ferguson refought the "Pizzagate" battle at Old Trafford in October and reported that the Arsenal manager had run towards him with raised hands in the aftermath of United's 2-0 victory.

Ferguson also argued that his most bitter rival in football was a "disgrace" - the type of person who did not know how to apologise. Wenger's response quickly turned into an emotional denouncement of Ferguson's tactics - and the English football culture in which he has thrived for so long.

At first Wenger insisted he would no longer respond to Ferguson's provocation - "I will never answer any questions any more about this man" - but then, in the company of a smaller group of journalists, his anger spilled over.

Wenger said: "What I don't understand is that he does what he wants and you are all at his feet. The situation [following the angry scenes at Old Trafford which left Ferguson's clothes smeared with soup and pizza] had been judged and there is a game going on in a month.

"The managers have a responsibility to protect the game before the game. But in England you are only punished for what you say after the game. Now the whole story starts again. I don't go into that game. We play football. I am a football manager and I love football above all ... no matter what people say.

"For me, what is important is that we have a responsibility before the game and in England it is too easy - and too many people get away with this - to prepare already an explosive. That is not in my interests and now I have nothing to say. He says what he wants. It is his responsibility."

When Wenger was reminded that Ferguson had called him a "disgrace", he said: "I don't respond to anything. In England you have a good phrase. It is 'bringing the game into disrepute'. But that is not only after the game, it is as well before a game."

Earlier, Wenger had been emphatic that the bait laid by Ferguson would be ignored with some contempt and on the issue of whether he had indeed challenged Ferguson to fight he said: "I have always been consistent with that story and told you nothing happened in the corridor.

"As far as Ferguson is concerned, one thing is very simple with him. If he has to talk, he talks. If he wants to make newspaper articles, he can make newspaper articles. It doesn't matter to me at all. I'm not going to answer any provocation from him any more. He does what he likes in England anyway. He can go abroad one day and see how it is."

In that last point Wenger struck almost a self-pitying note - the browbeaten foreigner in the middle of a home conspiracy - but the truth was enough to bring a new dose of despair to the FA, which has long been at the mercy of the Ferguson-Wenger warfare.

It was that the animus between the two most dominant managers in English football until the arrival of Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge is something quite beyond the scope of the usual disciplinary processes.

The feeling within the ruling body yesterday was that any action against Ferguson would serve no useful purpose. Instead it would supply only fresh kindling for a fire already burning fiercely weeks before the confrontation at Highbury - one which, ironically enough, is in danger of being stripped of all significance but petty bragging rights as Chelsea sit on a 10-point lead in the Premiership.

One proposed FA strategy is to apply heavy pressure to the boards of United and Arsenal - and make a new appeal to the League Managers' Association.

The best hope is that the employers of both men - and their professional body - might just be able to make the point that the game's senior statesmen are descending into the argument patterns of a couple of feuding hillbillies. However, it is a little late in the piece for such cock-eyed optimism.

Even while Wenger was announcing his disdain for any future controversy, his body language spoke of fierce anger and distaste for the man with whom he has been locked into controversy from almost the first day of their intense rivalry.

Before the October fiasco - which destroyed hopes that the damage caused by the previous season's outrage, when a pack of Arsenal players mobbed Ruud van Nistelrooy and their manager not only refused to criticise them but also said that everyone was aware their victim "knew only how to cheat people" - both Ferguson and Wenger told the world that really they had quite a warm relationship. Indeed, Ferguson spoke of cosy reflections over glasses of fine wine during coaching courses.

Those who swallowed that fiction are a little wiser now. The reality is that the wider the gap between Ferguson and Wenger appears to be, the closer they are in their belief that one of the most important goals in life is beating the other. That this is a truth beyond the means of any disciplinary body surely went past the point of dispute this weekend.

To know this you had only to read the extent of Ferguson's probing for an advantage - and the pure rage in Wenger's voice when he said he was washing that man right out of his hair.