Arsene Wenger faced the media on Friday ahead of one of the biggest home games of the season - against Chelsea.
Inevitably, the Arsenal boss was asked about some of the characters who have dominated the headlines in recent meetings. Here’s what he said:
- 'Discipline is key to beating Chelsea'
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on handling Diego Costa…
[The best way to handle him is] by being completely cold-blooded, just focus on the game and don’t respond. Just try to negate his qualities and his game. You need to be committed but by respecting the rules of the game and not responding. Last year we were a bit unlucky at Chelsea to be down to 10 men because we got a red card and it was [rescinded] after. In the other game, we deserved the red card because we were caught on a quality run by [Costa].
on Antonio Conte…
He is doing well because he has started, they have started, in a very strong way. After that they have a little bit slowed down against Swansea and of course they had the big game against Liverpool that they lost, but I think Liverpool had a strong start, a strong first half and they came back in the second half, so he [Conte] has done well.
on Mourinho’s comments…
Look, I haven’t read the book [that published the comments] and I certainly won’t read it. I cannot comment on that. I talk about football and that’s all I do. I’m not in a destructive mode, ever. I’m more constructive and I cannot comment on that because I’m focused on tomorrow’s game and how we want to play football.
I do not want to especially comment because we play Chelsea. I have no personal problem with anybody, I respect everybody in our game and I don’t feel I comment a lot on other teams. Sometimes I just say what I think, but that is part of the way I am.
It has nothing to do with our game tomorrow. I personally am just focused on doing my job well and respecting everybody else.
on whether we have to wait for his book now…
I don’t know, I will maybe make a book one day but I am not ready for that yet!
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