When Premier League title races turned into a war of words

The fiery words that Manchester City duo Bernardo Silva and John Stones aimed at Arsenal after their 2-2 draw on Sunday suggests this could be the latest top-two rivalry that spills off the pitch and into press rooms, as players and especially managers seek the mental edge over their biggest challengers.

Here we take a look at how past Premier League rivalries have been ignited by some cutting comments off the pitch, beginning with a classic from the mid-1990s.

Man Utd v Newcastle: 1995-1997

Kevin Keegan: "I've kept really quiet but I'll tell you something, he went down in my estimation when he said that. We have not resorted to that. You can tell him now… we’re still fighting for this title and he’s got to go to Middlesbrough and get something. I’ll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them, love it."

Keegan’s legendary outburst, during a post-match interview on Sky in April 1996, is still a prime example of how title-race pressure can affect the men at the helm. He had taken exception to Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson implying that Nottingham Forest would be submissive opponents in Newcastle’s next match, and explosively expressed this on live TV.

The fact his own team had surrendered a 12-point lead over Man Utd in the 1995/96 season was another reason for Keegan’s ire, and his mood did not improve 12 months later when Ferguson’s men retained the title and again consigned the Magpies to second place again.

Arsenal v Man Utd: 1996-2003

Sir Alex Ferguson: "In the tunnel, Wenger was criticising my players, calling them cheats, so I told him to leave them alone and behave himself. He ran at me with hands raised saying 'what do you want to do about it?' It's a disgrace, but I don't expect Wenger to ever apologise, he's that type of person."

Arsene Wenger: "Ferguson's out of order. He has lost all sense of reality. He is going out looking for a confrontation, then asking the person he is confronting to apologise. He's pushed the cork in a bit far this time and lost a lot of credibility by saying what he said."

The media gleefully reported every utterance in the Premier League’s greatest-ever managerial rivalry, which saw Arsenal and United hold a dominate the title race from 1996/97 to 2003/04. The above quotes actually came in 2004/05, when neither boss finished top, perhaps reflecting their mutual exasperation at trailing newly monied Chelsea.

In the first meeting that season, United ended Arsenal’s remarkable 49-match unbeaten run by defeating them 2-0 at Old Trafford and in the aftermath, pieces of food were thrown and the identity of Ferguson’s assailant was shrouded in a mystery dubbed "Pizzagate".

Ahead of the February 2005 return match at Highbury, which itself became infamous for a tunnel bust-up between captains Roy "I’ll see you out there" Keane and Patrick Vieira, Ferguson reflected: "Their behaviour [at Old Trafford] was the worst thing I have seen in this sport. They got off scot-free."

Arsenal v Chelsea: 2004-2006

Arsene Wenger: “I know we live in a world where we have only winners and losers, but once a sport encourages teams who refuse to take the initiative, the sport is in danger.”

Jose Mourinho: “There are some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks, speaks, speaks about Chelsea.”

If a Portuguese star accused Arsenal of lacking attacking ambition on Sunday, it was the other way around in April 2005, when Wenger expressed his disdain for Mourinho’s "park the bus" tactics. With just five matches left to follow in the title race, the former Porto boss oversaw a dour 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge that extinguished any hope the Gunners might have had of closing a chasm in the table, and Chelsea went on to win their first Premier League crown.

Wenger’s league title-winning days were over and when a drought opened up between his 2005 and 2013 successes in the FA Cup, Jose revived their rivalry by jibing: “Eight years without silverware, that’s failure. He’s a specialist in failure.”

Chelsea v Man Utd: 2006-2011

Jose Mourinho: "I saw their players and manager go for a lap of honour after losing to us in their last home game. In Portugal if you do this, they throw bottles at you."

Sir Alex Ferguson: "I remember his first press conference and I thought: 'He's a cocky b******' he was telling the players: 'Look, I'm the special one, we don't lose games.'"

Mourinho had already left his mark in Manchester when he took his newly crowned champions, Chelsea, to Old Trafford in May 2005. In the previous season, he had sprinted down the touchline when his Porto team eliminated Ferguson’s side en route to winning the 2003/04 Champions League. Now he was back, to celebrate his status as a champion of England and taunt his opposite number after inflicting a 3-1 defeat in front of the United fans.

Sir Alex had something of the last laugh in 2006/07, however, when his resurgent squad starring Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo pipped Chelsea to the post for what would have been their third Premier League title in a row. It was the same top two in that order, with United as champions, in 2007/08 and 2010/11, but the west London club were then under less volatile managers in Avram Grant and Carlo Ancelotti. The latter was in charge when Chelsea beat Ferguson’s men in the 2009/10 race.