UK Edition
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says Sam Allardyce is no longer his enemy ahead of Emirates reunion
Arsène Wenger, the Arseanal manager, admits he has warmed to old adversary Sam Allardyce, the man who once branded him arrogant and boasted how he loved "winding up" the Frenchman.
Allardyce's new incarnation as Crystal Palace manager takes him to the Emirates Stadium on New Year's Day to renew a rivalry that began in 2001 when Bolton were promoted to the Premier League.
In those days Wenger was a rarity as a foreign manager in the Premier League – and certainly the only one picking up regular silverware – but now Allardyce finds himself in an elite band of just four English managers in the division, none of whom is challenging at the top half of the table.
"Slowly, slowly," Wenger explained when asked about how his relationship with Allardyce has thawed from frosty to relatively cordial. "There is no obvious reason."
Allardyce was happy to reheat the animosity in the pages of Big Sam, The Autobiography, published in 2015. "I enjoyed beating Arsenal more than anyone when I was in charge at Bolton," he wrote. "We’d really got to them and Arsène Wenger hated us. We drew with them or beat them more often than expected and Wenger couldn’t handle it.
"There was one time he wouldn’t shake hands with me at Highbury because we got a draw. I saw him ripping his tie off and throwing it on the floor in anger. He takes it all very personally and has an air or arrogance."
"Yes, everybody is happy to get a result over me," Wenger said. "I can understand that. You have to analyse the Premier League a bit regionally at the time. Before you had Bolton, Manchester up there and it was a little . . ."
A little what? The home of a clique of managers under the sway of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United?
"I always was just focused, I never had any problem with that," Wenger said. "You focus on your job and try to do it well. Over 20 years it has changed. I was isolated as a foreign manager at the start. It’s not the case any more.
"When I arrived, the Scots were in charge. Slowly now the foreign managers arrived. When I arrived people said the foreign managers can never be successful in England. That has changed over the years."
Wenger also expressed sympathy for the way Allardyce lost the England job in the wake of the Telegraph's revelations that he was willing to offer advice on how to get round third party ownership rules.
Wenger likened that departure to the ejection of Sven-Goran Eriksson, who had his England contract terminated two years early in 2006 after a similar undercover operation.
"It was the same with Sven Eriksson at the time," he said. "You do not know how serious it was. It’s very difficult to assess that situation. Overall I find the whole process tricky and unfair."
Wenger's side will kick-off 12 points behind Chelsea should the league leaders beat Stoke on Saturday, a result that would move Antonio Conte's side to within a game of Arsenal's record of 14 successive Premier League wins.
Wenger believes the season had failed to live up to its hype, however, with Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola having joined Conte at the Premier League top table.
"The best managers in the world are all in the Premier League and it promised to be an exceptional year but until now it has been disappointing on all levels."