Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho claimed on Friday he is not shown the same respect as his Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger, ahead of their Premier League showdown on Saturday.
Mourinho, 53, has regularly clashed with Wenger, 67, over the course of his two spells as Chelsea manager and his current role at United.
Both men have three Premier League titles each, but with Mourinho having won his last title as recently as 2015 – as opposed to 2004 for Wenger – he feels the media do not give him enough credit.
“In the Premier League, going just on the Premier League, tomorrow is a match between the two managers with the best record. Sir Alex Ferguson isn’t here anymore,” Mourinho said.
“Tomorrow, I think between the two managers we are speaking about, I think (there are) six or seven Premier League titles. I have three, he has three or four.
“Does that mean we should be respected, even in periods where our results are not the best? I think Mr Wenger has that respect from all of you. I don’t think I have.
“Especially because my last Premier League title was 18 months ago, not 18 years ago. I don’t think I get that respect.
“But to be honest, I just follow my way because I want to win a ninth championship and I want to win a fourth Premier League.”
United, sixth in the table, have won just two of their last eight league games and will fall nine points below Arsenal if they are beaten at Old Trafford on Saturday.
Wenger has never beaten Mourinho in a league game and has not masterminded a league win at Old Trafford since September 2006, but Mourinho says those statistics will count for nothing.
“Some records are better than others,” he told reporters at United’s training base in Carrington, west of Manchester.
“But in the end, a football match is an isolated event, nothing to do with what happened before, nothing to do with what can happen in the future.”
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