ARSÈNE WENGER can put aside his dossiers on Chelsea for the time being after his two recent meetings with them, but yesterday he still managed a couple of digs at the team that took Arsenal’s Barclays Premiership crown last season.

Having emphasised the stuttering form of José Mourinho’s side in their opening two league games, the Frenchman spoke of his fondness for teams that entertain and made no attempt to place his London rivals in that category. Mourinho is also concerned about his side’s image, but he was more disturbed by suggestions that Chelsea had bought the title.

Arsenal face Fulham at Highbury tonight, but Wenger’s mind remains occupied by the 1-0 defeat by West London’s higher-profile Premiership club on Sunday. That gave Chelsea an early three-point advantage, but the Arsenal manager is keen to play down suggestions that he is already fighting a losing battle.

“It’s all Chelsea at the moment, but they could have had no points and they have six,” Wenger said. “The two games they have played do not suggest to me that they are dominant in English football. I feel we should take the positives out of the game (at Stamford Bridge). It was a really unlucky defeat. They didn’t create more than we created. We were really unlucky with some decisions, because there was a clear penalty and they scored a lucky goal.”

Critics would claim that Chelsea make few mistakes partly because of their lack of adventure and Wenger spoke of the difficulties of trying to break them down. “Chelsea never open up, home or away,” he said. “You have to cope with that. Chelsea give you hard problems because they don’t come out. The back four plus (Claude) Makelele stay there and you have to pass the ball much quicker than we did.

” When it was suggested that Chelsea’s approach is unattractive, Wenger said: “That’s the problem of their supporters, not of us.”

While insisting that he was not criticising Chelsea — “I do not accuse Chelsea of anything,” Wenger said — he went on to explain his footballing philosophy. “I love football. It is important for the game that the teams and the coaches take the initiative. 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. The teams who stay in your memory and make you love football are the teams who play (entertainingly). We are all here because people come to the stadiums and we have never to forget that.”

Many people, Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson among them, will say that Chelsea’s buying power gives them a huge advantage, but Mourinho, in what will seem to some to be a preposterous argument, claimed that he was also shackled by financial constraints, even though he has spent about £140 million on players since taking over last summer.

“I don’t like the image as it is not a fair image,” Mourinho said. “When you speak about money it is the money that Mr (Roman) Abramovich has spent when I was not here.”

It makes good public relations to talk this way, of course, but while Mourinho’s net spending of £34 million this summer — after the expected sale of Tiago, the midfield player, to Lyons for £7 million — is considerably lower than has been lavished by Chelsea in the previous two seasons, it still dwarfs that of any other club in the top flight this summer.

The arrival of Michael Essien for £24.4 million from Lyons broke the club’s transfer record and took spending to more than £250 million since Abramovich bought the club two years ago, but Mourinho believes that too much has been made of the extravagant fees he has paid.

“Take the £24.4 million we paid for Essien and add on his salary over five years,” he said. “How much is he? If you buy a player from (AC) Milan, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid, you put his salary and multiply by five, and you will see who is the cheaper player.”

Tiago was the first casualty of the battle for places highlighted by Ricardo Carvalho, the defender, who returns to the squad for the match against West Bromwich Albion tonight — a game for which Chelsea have 3,000 tickets left for sale.