Final whistle verdict: Doubly punished NEWS 10 hours It was a decision that denied Chelsea the chance to take the lead from the penalty spot in the second half at Southampton that was the key moment of the game said Jose Mourinho afterwards. The south coast side took the lead on 17 minutes in Sunday afternoon’s match, the second game for both sides in three days, and in doing so became the first to score against Chelsea in the league since Newcastle at the beginning of the month. The Saints were set to take that advantage into the changing room at half-time. That was until a moment of Eden Hazard inspiration in added time, the Belgian equalising with his 10th goal of the season having taken on and beaten two defenders. The opening 45 minutes were a balanced contest but after the interval the Blues pressed the Saints back for long periods but could not find a winner. We were the first side this season to deny Ronald Koeman’s team a league win after they had scored first, but could have come away with all three points had referee Anthony Taylor awarded a penalty rather than booked Cesc Fabregas when our midfielder was clearly tripped inside the area in the second half. ‘My view is the view of everybody,’ said Mourinho after the game. ‘There are situations where people can have different opinions but there are others where everybody has the same opinion. It wasn’t given because the referee made a mistake, people make mistakes and it was a big mistake. He is a very good ref and a good guy. He is young and has years of football ahead of him, and it is a big mistake but tomorrow is another day and life goes on. ‘In the first match of the season at Burnley Diego Costa got a yellow card when it should have been a penalty to us and a red card for Burnley, and now a few months later we lose points and Fabregas gets a yellow card. In football we should always try to change the bad things and the double punishment is something unbelievable. You have a penalty and probably you win the game, you don’t get the penalty and you get a yellow card. ‘It should be easy – the ref goes to a screen and he sees that he made a mistake, and he is a good and honest guy and he writes I made a mistake and let’s clean the yellow card to Cesc. It should be a simple process.’ Mourinho highlighted an unfair media spotlight which is highly selective in what it focuses on after Chelsea games, something he likened to a campaign… ‘We have had bad yellow cards against us and in the game against Hull City, the most important thing of the game was not Cahill [not being booked], it was Fiilpe Luis with almost a broken leg. ‘In the last two weeks both Filipe Luis and Eden Hazard could now be with broken legs, these are the two crucial things in the last few weeks from my matches, and people talk about Cahill in a game with the result 2-0, and against West Ham, a good game, 2-0 which could be 4-0 or 5-0, Valencia made a very bad dive at the end of the game and people speak about Ivanovic. ‘Today it is a game between two good sides, a difficult match with not many opportunities and the ref makes a wrong decision. He just made a mistake, I don’t say more than that.’ The Chelsea boss felt his team performed well against the fourth- placed side… ‘Southampton defended with everything and they defended a lot. They played with a central defender at right-back, they accumulated a lot of players behind the ball and they did well with their strategy of closing everything. We tried everything and we dominated, we created a lot. Sometimes the shots on-target statistics are not the best evidence of the football played. We played a lot, especially in the second half. ‘Oscar was ill, we have no injuries, and I replaced Schurrle with Willian at half-time because Southampton had a low block and Schurrle is more dangerous getting behind people. With such a low block, we needed more a creative guy like Willian than a runner like Schurrle.’ Chelsea’s draw was matched as a result by Manchester City’s 2-2 at home against Burnley, meaning we reach the halfway stage in the league season with a three- point lead... ‘We’ve had very difficult fixtures away from home and we lost one game we didn’t deserve to lose at Newcastle. We are doing well,’ said Mourinho on recent away form. ‘We have played well since the beginning of the season and we are top of the league in the first part of the season because that is what we deserve and is a consequence of our work. In the second part of the season we try to do the same thing. ‘Tomorrow is a day off because my players deserve it and against Tottenham we will be there again trying to play a good game and a get a good result.’
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 05:45:33 +0000
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