Arsenal fans were left red faced on Sunday as Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho mocked the club’s ten year absence of a Premier League title in response to claims his side are ‘boring’.
The Blues mustered a typically stoic performance to creep another point towards top flight glory, keeping a battling Gunners side at bay to close out a goalless stalemate at the Emirates Stadium.
Chelsea had three penalty appeals turned down and a goal cleared off the line in an eventful first half, but Mourinho’s men were forced to pull all 11 men behind the ball at times as Arsenal piled forward after the break.
The Emirates faithful were left frustrated, though, as their side failed to break through, and they made their feelings known with chants of ‘boring, boring Chelsea’ as the players left the field.
And when questioned about the heckling, Mourinho quipped: "I think boring is ten years without a title. That is boring.”
"You support the club and you're waiting, waiting, waiting for so many years without a Premier League title, so that's very boring."
The manager also offered his own explanation for the chants, though his view is likely to only incense Gunners fans further.
He added: “I don’t think it was boring Chelsea, they were not singing to us, I think it was something else.
"Maybe, when you want to win a game and you're at home and you take your number nine [Olivier Giroud] off, maybe the home fans want more.
"Maybe they want to play Giroud and [Danny] Welbeck together up front to try to win the game.
“I think it was more boring Arsenal, than it was boring Chelsea.”
The draw means the league leaders retain their ten point lead at the top, and Mourinho has called for his players to secure the Premier League title as early as possible in order to treat fans to an enjoyable final day of the season against Sunderland.
"It's a point; we are in the countdown to the champions,” said the Blues boss. “But I would prefer to be champions before the last game.
“I would love to bring my family and the players’ families for a game at Stamford Bridge which you can just enjoy, and not have to win.
“Before that we have four matches, we’ll see in these four matches if we can five points. But if we have to go until the last match, we’ll do that, the important thing is to be champions.”
Chelsea had a number of penalty appeals turned down, including one when ex-Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas was booked for simulation.
Mourinho has been outspoken on refereeing at this season, but refused to be critical this time.
"I don't comment," he said. "You have the screen, the technology, the repetitions, the pundits to analyse. I don't want to analyse, I prefer to look at the performance and say the referee's performance was good.
"Imagine if John Terry, who was absolutely amazing, makes a mistake; his performance would still be amazing even with a mistake and I think the referee had a very good performance, with a couple of mistakes."
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