Antonio Conte has accused Jose Mourinho of losing his mind in an astonishing attack on both the Manchester United manager and Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger, during which he described the pair as old.

Chelsea’s head coach warned Mourinho, 54, and Wenger, 68, that he was ready to “fight for me, my players, the club, with everyone” if they continued to aim digs at him and his team.

Mourinho, the ex-Chelsea manager, said on Thursday he had not lost his passion, despite not “behaving as a clown on the touchline”, perceived as a swipe at Conte and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.

In response on Friday, the Italian, 48, tapped his temple and said the Portuguese was suffering from “demenza senile”, literally translated as senile dementia. Chelsea later insisted Conte meant amnesia.

“I think he [Mourinho] has to see himself in the past, maybe he was speaking about himself in the past, yeah?” said Conte. “Maybe sometimes, someone forgets what they said or his behaviour and sometimes I think there is, I don’t know the name, demenza senile, when you are a bit [taps his temple].”

Asked to clarify what Conte meant, Chelsea coach Carlo Cudicini, who helps Conte with translation, said: “It is like amnesia, when you can’t remember things.”