Mourinho: The referee made mistakes

Mourinho: The referee made mistakes

Phil Dowd sent off Branislav Ivanovic in stoppage time after earlier waving away appeals from the same player for a penalty as he tussled with Chris Smalling

Oct 26, 2014 19:19:00

Jose Mourinho | Manchester United Chelsea | 26102014 Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho bemoaned the performance of referee Phil Dowd as the Blues were held to a 1-1 draw by Manchester United.

Dowd showed Branislav Ivanovic a second yellow card just seconds before Robin van Persie's stoppage time equaliser while 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.

And though Mourinho would not be drawn on whether he felt the decision to send Ivanovic off was correct, he believes there were a number of debatable calls made by Dowd and his team.

"I prefer not to speak about the second yellow card, because if I have to speak about the second yellow 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 just in front of me."

When asked about his side's four-point lead at the top of the table, he added: "We have a little space now for our mistakes, or for referees' mistakes."

Didier Drogba was called upon to make his first league start of the season 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.

And though Van Persie ensured a share of the spoils late on, the former Real Madrid boss was happy with the way Drogba and the rest of his side applied themselves.

"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.

"He [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."