Jose Mourinho blames referee for not punishing Burnley before Matic red card

Mourinho disapproving of the referee’s decision

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho feels the dismissal of Nemanja Matic would never have taken place if the referee had made the right decision the first time around. He says the decision the officials made against his team was not at all just and it could cause ramifications in his team’s race for the title. He also pointed out four occasions in the game where he felt referee Martin Atkinson's decision were wrong and caused the team to drop two of the three points.

Chelsea played Burnley on Saturday and had a 1-0 lead before Matic was sent off in the 69th minute for retaliating against Ashley Barnes. The reaction from Matic was in response to the tackle which Barnes committed. 11 minutes after the sending off, Ben Mee ended up scoring the equaliser, ending the game all square.

Minutes 30, 33, 43 and 69 crucial: Mourinho

Mourinho felt that Chelsea would have been leading the game at least by two goals if the two penalty decisions involving Diego Costa and Nranislav Ivanovic were given. He also felt Barnes got away with two tackles which he feels were worthy of getting the man booked.

“I’m happy that I’m not stupid and I understood everything a couple of months ago,” Mourinho said. “If you tell me this story that started a couple of months ago finished today and now we have 12 matches to play with an advantage of five points, I tell you [we will be] champions. But I don’t know if that story ends here or if you have more waiting for us.”

After saying what he had to, he did not go into further detail of the encounter and only said, “I prefer just to say that this game had four crucial moments: minutes 30, 33, 43 and 69. This is story of the game. I cannot comment because it is difficult for me not to say the truth.”

With each of those timings referring to the foul committed by Barnes on Ivanovic, Ivanovic’s shot being blocked by a Michael Kightly handball in the box which Kightly got away with, Diego Costa falling in the box when he had a tussle with Jason Shackell, and the most controversial one where Barnes caught Matic half-way up his shin with the bottom of his boots, causing Matic to retaliate and get sent off.

“Minute 69 [Matic’s shove on Barnes] has a big relation with minute 30,” said Mourinho.

“The player, if I can call him a player, who was involved in minute 30, normally in minute 31 he should be in the shower. No minute 69 if the person in charge does the things in the proper way in minute 30.

“A couple of weeks ago when I was here after the Liverpool game, I knew already that the ‘Diego crimes’ were going to be on and on and on. Compare ‘Diego’s crimes’ with what happened today.”

Matic suspended for Leafue Cup final against Tottenham

Matic will be suspedned for three matches and will not be able to play the League Cup final against Tottenham unless Chelsea appeals the decision. Although Mourinho doesn't seem optimistic, there is a quite a good chance that the decision could be revoked.

When asked if Chelsea was going to appeal on the decision, Mourinho mocked the question saying “Have you ever seen Chelsea win an appeal?”

The last time Matic missed a game, the Blues lost against Newcastle in the league bringing their unbeaten run to a halt.

Sean Dyche said he was “absolutely flummoxed” by Mourinho’s suggestion that the only reason the game ended the way it did was because of the match official’s decisions at those specific times. He said he will look into those decisions, but said, “We’ve had decisions go against us this season. If some went for us today, c’est la vie.”