Arsène Wenger responded to questions about the rumoured post-Manchester derby fracas by comparing football to sumo wrestling.

According to BBC Sport, there was an altercation between Manchester City and Manchester United players after the game, with milk and water bottles thrown, a confrontation with José Mourinho, all resulting to a cut to Mikel Arteta’s face.

With Arteta being a former Gunner, and the pizza throwing incident involving Arsenal and Manchester United a few years ago, reporters didn’t pass up the chance to ask Wenger for his thought,” reports the Express.

“It is part of the intensity. It can go overboard. It happened to us. Hopefully you commit 100% to the pitch and are an angel after. I don’t know what happened really. It is difficult to take to see the 100 per cent celebration on the other side.

“It is an experience that’s a little bit offensive. That’s why I admired sumo in Japan because the guy who wins does not show his happiness out of his respect for his opponent. Is it something we can copy? I don’t think so. It’s not part of our culture.”

Football is often a very emotional game, from the stands onto the pitch. Occasionally that spills over in the celebrations, and you get players performing choreographed dances one week, only to watch those same players get outclassed on the pitch by their local rivals the next.

I suppose that makes you feel a bit silly, which probably explains why the Manchester United players were so upset when Manchester City gave them a taste of their own medicine.

Whilst it is admirable that sumo wrestlers are able to control their emotions so successfully, Wenger is right that we’ll probably never see the same thing in football.

For me, at least, that’s not a bad thing.