Ballack to Wenger: It’s easy to beat Arsenal

German international Michael Ballack inflamed the row between Arsenal and Chelsea by calling Arsene Wenger a bad loser and branding the Gunners predictable. Ballack hit back in response to Wenger, who claimed Carlo Ancelotti’s Barclays Premier League leaders had failed to provide ‘a demonstration of football’ as they beat his team 2-0 on Sunday. The Arsenal boss, who enraged Martin O’Neill last month by accusing Aston Villa of long-ball football, also claimed Chelsea had resorted to foul play to stop his team counter-attacking. Ballack said: “When he loses he always finds an excuse. Football is not possession on the ball or playing nice passes. Good football is winning games and that’s what we do when we play against them. We deserved the win because we played very effectively. It was how we wanted to play before the game. It was our strategy. We knew the way they would play. We saw it in the first game we played against them and in the way they played against Manchester United. It is always the same style. If you get your tactics right like we did, I think you can beat them. Maybe, in the second half, we concentrated a bit too much on defending but, if you’re 2-0 up, you can do this. For me, good football is a mix of winning, successful football, mental strength, good football technically and also physically. I think we have a good mix in the team and we have done this all season. We can’t do more. We are first in the table. It looks like a race between us and Man United.”