Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has urged his managerial counterparts to show more respect to each another in the wake of Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho labelling the Gunners 10-year wait to win the Premier League title again as boring.
The goalless draw between the two sides took the Blues a step closer to the title, which following the midweek victory over Leicester City they can secure with a win over Crystal Palace on 3 May.
Chelseas tactics came in for criticism from Arsenal supporters after the league leaders started without a striker, with chants of boring, boring Chelsea filtering around the Emirates Stadium as the visitors saw out the stalemate.
In response, Mourinho said: You know, boring I think is 10 years without a title. Thats very boring. You support the club and youre waiting, waiting, waiting for so many years without a Premier League title, so thats very boring. But maybe they arent singing to us.
Wenger has replied to the jibe and says managers at the top level must show more respect towards one another as the bitterest rivalry in English football threatens to spark back into life.
The biggest thing of managers is to respect each other and some people have to improve on that, the Frenchman said in his pre-match press conference to preview the trip to Hull City. Everybody lives with his own internal problems and I live with mine and that is enough.
With Chelsea 13 points ahead and set to win their first championship for five years, Arsenal face a three-way fight to finish as runners-up, with Manchester City and Manchester United also in contention.
Wengers side finished seven points behind eventual champions City last term and though they are likely to be further adrift of the title winners this season, the manager insists his team have shown signs of improvement.
We have to look at it in a realistic way, he added. I feel we have made progress and so I look at it in a positive way because what you want in the season is your team to become better. We faced a big challenge because Chelsea didnt drop their level and thats why we didnt catch them but overall we feel we have made progress.
When you fight for the championship you win some games because you smell you can do it that you dont win if youre fourth or fifth.
We had big injuries after the World Cup and got the squad together even we lost players like Wilshere in November and after again so we were not altogether. We also had to spend some time to find a good balance and dropped points because of that.
When you look at games like Stoke away that was a big disappointment. We had a young defence that day and [things like that] that were detrimental to our results.
