Friday 18 September 2015 14:37, UK
Arsene Wenger is not interested in reigniting a feud with Chelsea counterpart Jose Mourinho ahead of his side’s visit to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Wenger and Mourinho clashed on the touchline during Chelsea's 2-0 win in this fixture last season, before they failed to shake hands after Arsenal's 2015 FA Community Shield win against the Blues.
Mourinho has previously branded the Frenchman a "specialist in failure", but Wenger is refusing to be side-tracked saying his only focus will be how his team performs against their London rivals.
"No special relationship [between any manager] is my worry, all I worry about is our performance tomorrow," Wenger said.
"I respect everybody in the job and focus on what I love and that is football. All the rest honestly does not concern me much.
"Realistically people come to watch football and all the rest is a little bit secondary. What is important is the quality of what we will see tomorrow morning at 12.45 and you want people to focus on that."
Wenger was asked if he would shake Mourinho's hand and if he regretted their bust-up last term.
"I don't want to talk about that," he said. "I have nothing more to say about this situation."
Asked if he thought Chelsea were in decline, Wenger replied: "I don't know, I leave that to the specialists. I take care of my team and my own problems."
But he warned against reading too much into Chelsea's start to the season, with the champions sitting 17th in the table after losing three of their opening five league games.
"It can happen," said Wenger. "Let's not forget it is the start of the season and only five games have been played.
"For us it is a big game and we know our position at the end of the season will depend on how well we do in the big games.
"I do not think too much about where Chelsea stand in the league at the moment. I focus more on us performing well with full power tomorrow."
