Chelsea ‘soss, Jose Mourinho has attributed his 1-1 draw at Old Trafford on Sunday, 26 October, 2014 to the performance of referee, Phil Dowd.
Dowd gave Branislav Ivanovic a second yellow card which translated to an automatic red card, a moment before Robin van Persie’s scored the equalising goal as the official also waved away appeals for a penalty from the Serbia defender after he was hauled to the ground by Chris Smalling in the first half.
Speaking with Goal news, Mourinho did not question the red card decision of the referee, but he believes there were some debatable calls made by Dowd on his team.
“I prefer not to speak about the second yellow card, because if I have to speak about the second yellows I have go through many things,” he told Sky Sports.
“The penalty on Ivanovic, the accumulation of cards, the fouls that he was not giving, the throws-ins was just in front of me.”
Speaking about his side’s four-point lead at the top of the table, Mourinho said, “We have a little space now for our mistakes, or for referees’ mistakes.”
Didier Drogba was the only available alternative to start the game due to injuries to Diego Costa and Loic Remy, and the veteran striker looked to have secured all three points for the Stamford Bridge outfit with his second-half header.
“My team played a fantastic game – it’s not easy to play against Manchester United who played very compact and tried to catch us on the counter.
“We had good control of the game we could’ve scored a couple more goals so I’m very happy with my players.
“Drogba has scored so many of them for a guy who has only been playing for the last week and wasn’t even able to train.
“The way he gave us this 90 minutes I’m so happy with his performance. My team was so good it’s very difficult to speak about individual players,” he said.
