Mourinho says enough is enough
Arsene Wenger must decide whether to accept Jose Mourinho's offer of a truce or risk the prospect of the Football Association stepping in to end their feud once and for all.
The FA have so far opted to watch from the sidelines as the pair verbally attack each other.
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The Portuguese has never been one to keep his mouth shut.
After his side had crashed to a second defeat in six days against Real Betis in the Champions League last night, Mourinho called on Wenger to halt his personal tirade with the proviso that he was ready to carry on with the fight should he refuse.
'First of all if my comments were very strong, I have to accept that his next comments will be very strong,' said Mourinho. 'I have to accept that.
'But at Stamford Bridge, we have a file of quotes from Mr Wenger about Chelsea football club in the last 12 months - it is not a file of five pages.
'It is a file of 120 pages so we have a very strong reaction. My objective is that it is enough. He has talked enough about us including some very strange things about Chelsea football club. We have a very strong answer.
'I accept the next answer being strong but it is time to stop because if he doesn't stop we are there for the fight.'
Mourinho is clearly gambling that Wenger will see the harm the constant bickering is doing to the game and to their clubs and agree to meet him halfway.
The Arsenal manager sparked the latest verbal circus by suggesting Chelsea, after their defeat to Charlton 5-4 on penalties in the Carling Cup last Wednesday, could be losing a 'little bit of self-belief'.
After Chelsea had remained in pole position at the top of the Barclays Premiership on Saturday with a 4-2 win over Blackburn, Mourinho delivered his return salvo.
Mourinho labelled Wenger a 'voyeur' - a description which the Frenchman disliked with such severity that he talked of legal action at the same time as denouncing Mourinho as 'out of order, disrespectful and stupid'.
However, no-one could accuse Mourinho of failing to see the frailties in his own team and he did just that after Betis moved to within a point of them in Group G.
Substitute Dani's 24th-minute goal was enough secure three vital points for Betis and leave Chelsea with five defeats in their last six away games in Europe.
Mourinho watched his side squander a gilt-edged chance to equalise through Eidur Gudjohnsen minutes before the interval and then muttered in earshot of the TV cameras in the tunnel at half-time that it was the worst first-half performance he had witnessed since taking charge.
Worse was to follow, even though Mourinho replaced Gudjohnsen and Joe Cole at half-time - a decision that baffled many as Arjen Robben had barely had a kick throughout the entire half.
Chelsea still could not find a way back into the game but were cruelly out of luck when a Michael Essien shot rebounded off both posts and into the arms of the grateful Betis goalkeeper to preserve their lead.
'It was the worst performance since I arrived,' admitted Mourinho. 'I have been here for 15 months and we have played perhaps 80 games at Chelsea and this was the worst performance.
'The first half was too bad to be true. I know everything was bad. I cannot find a positive out of the game.
'I do not think it is fair to single out any individual player, the whole team played bad. This is was a very bad team performance.'
So much for the football. All eyes are now firmly fixed on Highbury and Wenger to see if there is to yet another episode in the love-hate relationship between two of the most forthright and successful managers in the English game.
