Dubai: Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger is unlikely to face disciplinary action for pushing Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho during his side’s 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, but why?

The sight of two managers grappling on the touchline sets a poor precedent for fans and players in what was already a tempestuous London derby, with kick-off ironically delayed by 15 minutes due to fireworks being set off inside the stadium.

Wenger shoved Mourinho following Gary Cahill’s first half challenge on Alexis Sanchez.

Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew was hit with a seven-match ban and a fines totalling £160,000 (Dh955,000) from his club and the English Football Association (FA) last season for making similar contact with Hull City midfielder David Meyler, albeit with his head.

But where do you draw the line on the degree of force, or where such contact is made? Both are wrong, it just seems managers from top clubs are given more benefit of the doubt than their lower-positioned counterparts.

The incident may be dependent on bureaucracy, like the fact the FA doesn’t act on events that aren’t mentioned in the referee’s report. But, no matter how pathetic Wenger and Mourinho’s melee appeared, it deserves some retrospective action, especially as neither party is willing to apologise or even acknowledge their wrongdoing.

Fair enough, innocuous contact like that on the field between two players is to be expected and can be ignored or at the very most deserving of a yellow card. But coaches aren’t on the pitch or playing and their responsibility as role models, and barometers of order, is far greater.

It’s a slippery slope to ignore the confrontation without so much as a small fine or one-match touchline ban, and if coaches believe they can get away with that it could well lead to even uglier scenes.

Both managers would have publicly berated their own players for inciting the crowd with such behaviour, but who’s keeping a check on them?

The long-running spat between the two coaches is legendary, with Wenger having never beaten a Mourinho side and Mourinho recently dubbing the Arsenal coach a “specialist in failure”.

But, while rivalry is inevitable as it is a vital part of competition, you still need to keep it a little classy, and for that Wenger and Mourinho should tone it down.

Their next derby will carry with it extra spice, which is good for the game and TV audiences, but bad for the stewards and police officers who have to control it.