EPL: The professor's beautiful mind

After being thrashed by Chelsea 6-0, the enigmatic Arsene Wenger told the media that the defeat was entirely his fault, although most people watching would have said that his fullbacks' complete abandonment of their defensive duties, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's goalkeeping impression and Andre Marriner's poor eyesight at least played a part in the Gunners' downfall. However, the Frenchman's post-match comments were typically enthralling, as they have been for the last 18 years. Here are some of Wenger's quotes.

EARLY DAYS AT HIGHBURY…

"When I first came to Arsenal, I realised the back four were all university graduates in the art of defending. As for Tony Adams, I consider him to be a doctor of defence. He is simply outstanding."

"I think in England you eat too much sugar and meat and not enough vegetables. The whole day you drink tea with milk and coffee with milk and cakes. If you had a fantasy world of what you shouldn't eat in sport, it's what you eat here."

"I tried to watch the Tottenham match on television in my hotel yesterday, but I fell asleep."

"I watch football." - After being asked what he does with his spare time

HIS LONG-STANDING RIVALRY WITH FOE-TURNED-FRIEND, SIR ALEX FERGUSON…

"Everyone thinks he has the prettiest wife at home." - After Ferguson (below) said United had been the best side since Christmas and deserved to have pipped Arsenal for the title in May 2002

"No. Perhaps he sent it by horse." - Upon being asked if he had received the apology that Sir Alex announced he had sent to Wenger

"He doesn't interest me and doesn't matter to me at all. I will never answer to any provocation from him any more." - Wenger in January 2005, but then...

"Ferguson's out of order. He has lost all sense of reality. He is going out looking for confrontation, then asking the person he's confronting to apologise. He's pushed the cork in a bit far this time." - Responding to Ferguson's suggestion that he should apologise for his players' behaviour in the notorious "Battle of the Buffet", where an Arsenal player allegedly threw a slice of pizza at Ferguson

"Ferguson should calm down. Maybe it would have been better if he had put us against a wall and shot us."

SELECTIVE VISION AND QUESTIONABLE ACUMEN…

"Days, not weeks." - Wenger reveals to the media how long Tomas Rosicky's injury would rule him out for. In the end, it would be 18 months…

"Sometimes I see it (a foul by an Arsenal player), but I say that I didn't see it to protect the players and because I could not find any rational explanation for that they did."

We were considering him (Ruud van Nistelrooy) and Francis Jeffers and, in the end, we went for Jeffers."

"He should never be allowed to play football again." - After Martin Taylor's tackle on Eduardo left the then-Arsenal striker with a broken leg

"I watched it when I got home and it looked very bad. You ask 100 people, 99 will say it's very bad and the hundredth will be Mark Hughes (then-City manager)." - On Man City striker Emmanuel Adebayor's stamp on Robin van Persie

WITTICISMS AFTER PLAYER DEPARTURES…

"It is a big surprise to me because he cancelled his contract to go abroad. Have you sold Portsmouth to a foreign country?" - After Sol Campbell's move to Portsmouth

"It's like you wanting to marry Miss World and she doesn't want you. I can try to help you, but if she does not want to marry you what can I do?" - After Jose Reyes announced he wanted to leave Arsenal

"Despite the global warming, England is still not warm enough for him." - Another dig at Reyes

HIS BITTER RIVALRY WITH CHELSEA BOSS, JOSE MOURINHO…

"He's out of order, disconnected with reality and disrespectful. When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent." - Wenger's November 2005 response to Mourinho's claim that the Frenchman was a football "voyeur" who was obsessed with Chelsea

"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." - Wenger accuses Mourinho of having a negative approach to the game

"If you would like to compare every manager, you give each one the same amount of resources and say 'you have that for five years'. After five years, you see who has done the most." - Wenger accuses Mourinho of being a chequebook manager in April 2007, just after Chelsea had beaten them in the League Cup final

PHILOSOPHY AND INSPIRATIONS…

"We do not buy superstars. We make them."

"One of the things I discovered in Japan was from watching sumo wrestling. At the end you can never tell who has won the fight and who has lost, because they do not show their emotion because it could embarrass the loser. It is unbelievable. That is why I try to teach my team politeness. It is only here in England that everybody pokes their tongue out when they win."

"If I give you a good wine, you will see how it tastes and afterwards you ask where it comes from." - Wenger responds to Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson, who complained that Arsenal have so many foreign players compared to British ones

"Gerard (Houllier) is an open-minded and passionate man. I am the opposite: stubborn and stupid. But sometimes stupid behaviour makes you win."

"At some clubs, success is accidental. At Arsenal, it is compulsory."

"Any man who concentrates his energy totally on one passion is, by definition, someone who hurts the people close to him."

"The biggest things in life have been achieved by people who, at the start, we would have judged crazy. And yet if they had not had these crazy ideas the world would have been more stupid."

"A football team is like a beautiful woman. When you do not tell her, she forgets she is beautiful."

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