Speaking ahead of his club’s Super Sunday showdown with Arsenal, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho declined an opportunity to apologize to his counterpart Arsene Wenger for referring to long-serving Gunners’ boss as a “specialist in failure” last season.

Mourinho reminded reporters that he made the verbal taunt in response to comments made by Wenger and would prefer to leave that moment in the past.

“It was a consequence of something,” the Chelsea manager said.

“It was not a deliberate first option to say something. I didn’t get an apology. I don’t apologize.”

Although, last season Mourinho did apologize for calling Wenger a “voyeur” earlier in his career.

“To go over it, to forget it and to move forward without thinking about what happened.”

“We don’t need that, finish, move and let’s go for another match with big responsibility for both of us.”

“We have the responsibility not to win, to give a good football match and for [the] millions of fans that both clubs have.”

Last February, Wenger questioned the motives behind Mourinho’s reluctance to declare his Chelsea side as title front-runners. The Arsenal manager had claimed that managers who play mind games do so because of a ‘fear’ of failure.

Wenger’s statement led Mourinho to unleash a personal attack against the Frenchman:

“Am I afraid of failure? He is a specialist in failure. I’m not. So if one supposes he’s right and I’m afraid of failure, it’s because I don’t fail many times.”

“So maybe he’s right. I’m not used to failing. But the reality is he’s a specialist because, eight years without a piece of silverware, that’s failure.”

“If I did that in Chelsea, I’d leave and not come back to London. I don’t fear anything in football.”