Arsene Wenger's siege mentality betrays a man on the edge - he is charming and engaging at best but myopic and a hypocrite on days like this
The Frenchman's performance after the 2-2 with Chelsea was utterly bizarre, contradictory and abrasive
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Your support makes all the difference.Arsene Wenger is not a known admirer of Jose Mourinho, but in his post-match press conference on Wednesday night he put on a full Mourinho tribute act, and he played all the hits.
Painting a dark picture of a conspiracy against his team, linking unrelated incidents in different games, suggesting that the deck was so stacked against his team that they would have to factor it into their preparation, having to defend himself against an FA charge for allegedly abusing the referee, even obsessing about favourable decisions his rivals received, and the lack of coverage they got. All he needed was a vindictive personal attack on a critic to complete the playbook.
Even to the most experienced Wenger-watchers this was a new level of emotional reaction. Yes, he was clearly exasperated by losing a lead – for the second time in four days - to what he saw as an incorrect penalty decision. But this was Wenger at his prickly, sarcastic worst, telling journalists that they are “always more intelligent than everybody” and that they, unlike him, “don't defend football”.
What was so surprising was that after this tirade Wenger attempted to place himself above it, insisting that actually talking about referees was tiring to him, beneath him, and he would rather just be talking about football. “It would be nice, at some stage, to talk about football again,” he sighed. “But you’re not interested in that. What are we talking about? Not about football.”
In one seven-minute press conference, Wenger was trying to have it both ways.
To obsess over referees and even the decisions given to other teams, and the coverage of them. And then straight after to say that he would rather not be talking about all this because he is more interested than the game itself. You can either do one or the other, but you cannot do both. Even Mourinho, for all of his faults, is self-aware enough to not pivot straight from a rant about referees to saying that “it would be nice to talk about football again”.
Wenger’s pre-match press conferences at London Colney early on Thursday mornings are unlike anyone else’s, and at his best he is funny, insightful, imaginative, full of lateral thinking and deft turns of phrase.
There is no-one else quite like him in football and he will be a loss when he goes. But immediately after a match, when he has not got the result he wanted, and when he feels wronged – whether legitimately or not – he is like a different person, emotional, abrasive, leaving himself open to charges of myopia and hypocrisy.
When he left the press conference he was asked about a decision that went Arsenal’s way, as Wilshere was not shown a second yellow card for an apparent dive on the edge of the Chelsea box. Wenger insisted that he did not see it.
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