Jose Mourinho insists there is no need to make peace with long-time foe Arsene Wenger when Arsenal meet Manchester United on Sunday.
The two managers have endured a tempestuous relationship since Mourinho first arrived in England as Chelsea manager in 2004, and Wenger admitted on Thursday he is ready to let bygones be bygones with the United boss.
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“I am open always in life to everything, for peace,” said the Arsenal manager. “I do not make of it a manager's fight. I want that my team shows up and gives a performance on Sunday and plays well.”
But Mourinho, who has never lost to Wenger in the Premier League, says there are already no hard feelings as far as he is concerned ahead of the Emirates Stadium clash.
“He doesn’t need to [make peace]. He doesn’t need to because there are no problems,” he told a pre-match press conference. “In the last match at Old Trafford we shook hands before, after. I remember that I still met him in the corridor for the press conferences, we shook hands again. He doesn’t need to make peace.
“When there is peace, I don’t have a problem. I am a big boy, I am in football all my life, and I know that a problem on the pitch is not a problem anymore the next day. So for me, no problem at all, and I think he will be very pleased that I am going to change my team to play against Arsenal, so I think he will be very happy with me.”
While Mourinho did say that he is prepared to make plentiful changes in order to rest players, he added that he does not think of Sergio Romero exclusively as his Europa League goalkeeper any more than he only considers David de Gea for Premier League duty.
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“I don’t like to say this competition is for one goalkeeper, that competition is for another one. Sergio played one match in the Premier League, David played two matches in the Europa League against Fenerbahce and against Feyenoord. Sergio played also one match in the League Cup, David played the other matches and played the final. I don’t like that complete separation.
“But on Sunday, David plays. We have two fantastic goalkeepers, we have a third goalkeeper [Joel Pereira] that I think will be the best Portuguese goalkeeper of the next generation. We have great goalkeepers, and anyone in goal I trust completely.”
United travel to the Emirates Stadium still trailing fourth-placed Manchester City by a point, with Arsenal a further five points back with a game in hand.
