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Gallas: 'Mourinho wants to win every game'

Former Chelsea and Arsenal defender Gallas explains the difference between Jose and Arsene

EPL
 ARSENAL Hull City

His comments would not have gone down well with Arsene Wenger.

Taking a thinly veiled swipe at the Frenchman, former Arsenal defender William Gallas explained why the Gunners have not won the league title since 2004.

The 39-year-old feels that Wenger is not as obsessed with getting victories like Jose Mourinho, whom he played under and won two titles from 2004-2006 before he joined Arsenal.

"You get criticism when you don't win trophies, when you don't win games, and that is maybe the difference between Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger," said Gallas.

"Mourinho wants to win every game and, at the end of the season, sometimes he has success but, for Arsene, Arsenal didn't win from 2004 so everybody starts to criticise him because football has changed.

"Football is about victory, about trophies. Players want to lift trophies.

"If you don't lift a trophy in your career, you will feel disappointed at the end of your career.

"I don't know what Arsenal are going to do, but they have to win trophies again.

"Maybe it is time to change something at the end of the season."

Wenger admitted yesterday that Arsenal are in a fight to finish in the top four this season after watching their Premier League title bid falter over the last week.

The Gunners have been an ever-present inside the top four since 1996, but that position is likely to come under threat this season as the scrap for Champions League qualification intensifies.

Arsenal appeared to be more focused on a title tilt until damaging defeats by Watford and Chelsea left them just a point above fifth-placed Liverpool.

With Chelsea top of the table and Tottenham and Manchester City in decent form, Wenger will be wary of not only their challenges but also of the Reds and Manchester United lurking on the periphery.

And he said that not only are his side battling it out for a first title since 2004, but they are also looking to keep up their run of top-four finishes.

"You fight as far as you can," he said when asked if everyone has given up chasing strong favourites Chelsea for the title.

"We are in a double fight because we are in a fight to be in the top four.

"But when you are in a competition you fight, you do not go home and analyse rationally 'if they win here, they have three points'.

"We have as well to fight like we want to catch Chelsea or you have no fuel. You have to refuse to give up."

Asked if this was the hardest season to finish in the top four, he replied: "I'll tell you at the end of the season. It's hard of course but I think we have enough quality to do it."

He also refused to divulge the outcome of a team meeting held to analyse the back-to-back defeats which have threatened to destabilise Arsenal's campaign.

"I don't want to come out on that because it is difficult enough to keep some things internal," he said.

"There is no need for me to come out on top of that to (reveal) what I say in the meetings with the players."

Relegation-threatened Hull are next up for Wenger's men as Marco Silva takes his Tigers to the Emirates Stadium tonight.

"We're playing against a great team," said Silva, who will be without injured key players Michael Dawson (calf) and Abel Hernandez (hamstring).

"They didn't have good results in their last two games and, of course, the last time I played there it was a great result for us, for Olympiakos.

"But now it's different. Different competition, different moment and different clubs." 
- WIRE SERVICES

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