However, it has now been revealed the Chelsea manager was angered by what he perceived to be a snub of a goodwill message sent to Wenger in a Christmas card.

Mourinho had written an apology to the Frenchman for any hurt caused by his ill-judged “voyeur” comment and was hoping that could heal the fractious relationship between the two managers.

However, a member of the Arsenal backroom staff is reported to have questioned before Sunday’s game whether Mourinho had actually written the card himself.

Mourinho was also expecting Wenger to approach him with a handshake before the game, but this never materialised and the Chelsea boss took umbrage and hurried off down the tunnel at the final whistle.

Wenger, who decided against legal action against Mourinho for his “voyeur” jibe, must now decide whether to call a public truce when he is questioned on the matter ahead of Arsenal’s St Stephen's Day fixture at Charlton.

He will certainly be interested to note the admission by referees’ chief Keith Hackett that Robin van Persie’s disallowed effort against Chelsea should have stood – and put Arsenal 1-0 ahead.

Hackett, who was contacted after the game by Arsenal, told BBC Radio Five Live: “They wanted to know if I’d instructed officials to change their style of refereeing.

“I think they were concerned about one or two liberal aspects of the game. But for the offside decision, I was able to confirm this was not a correct decision by the assistant referee.

“Clearly we have a difficult law and interpretations of accuracy. In a fraction of a second, the assistant referee puts up his flag in the belief that Thierry Henry becomes active from a passive position.

“But when you examine the video many times, you can see Henry is not active.”

Hackett, who is the head of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, would not be drawn on Wenger’s views about Styles’ handling of the game.

The Arsenal boss had declared: “We scored a regular goal but the referee made a very bad decision. I associate the referee and linesmen in the same team – the Chelsea team.”

Hackett responded: “Rob Styles is a senior referee, a very competent official. We take on board the criticisms but, in that situation, the assistant got a very much better view and Rob is not going to wave the flag down.

“In the situation immediately after the match, some managers cannot bite their lip. The challenge for me is to improve the standard of refereeing and we are doing that week in, week out.

“There are some positive comments from managers. They come from Arsenal and, on a fairly regular basis, from Chelsea.”

The FA has been quick to clamp down on comments that appear to cast doubt on the fairness of officials or players and a spokesman confirmed it would be asking Wenger to explain himself.

But it appears unlikely he will actually face disciplinary action for comments that he would be likely to maintain were ironic, rather than actually accusing Styles of impartiality.