Mourinho unhappy with Dowd decisions

Jose Mourinho questioned a number of decisions by the officials after his Chelsea side were held to a 1-1 draw at Manchester United.

United striker Robin van Persie smashed home an equaliser deep into stoppage time on Sunday, from an Angel Di Maria free-kick awarded after Branislav Ivanovic fouled the Argentinian to collect his second booking.

Mourinho refused to be drawn on the incident after a game in which his team earned six cautions before Ivanovic’s red card.

But the Chelsea boss expressed a general unhappiness with the display of referee Phil Dowd and his assistants throughout the contest.

Mourinho told Sky Sports: “I prefer not to speak about the second yellow card because if I have to speak about the second yellow card I have to start in the first half – I have to go through many, many things that happened during the game.

“The penalty [claim for] Ivanovic, the accumulation of cards, the fouls that were not given, the throw-ins just in front of me and the fourth official and the linesman – giving the throw-ins in the other direction.

“I think Chelsea were fantastic in these circumstances and even more credit to my players.

“Obviously the result is not the result we came for. We came to win and we showed that from the first minute.

“With all these circumstances the performance was fantastic. The result not so good but acceptable.”

Chelsea hold a four-point lead over Southampton at the Premier League summit – an advantage that seemed destined to be greater when Didier Drogba marked his first top-flight start since returning to the club with a trademark header early in the second half.

Mourinho revealed that Drogba only resumed full training this week and praised his performance amid a collective effort he heaped further praise upon.

“He’s scored so many of them,” Mourinho added. “For a guy that is only playing for the last week in training to give us this 90 minutes the way he gave us and even score that beautiful goal…he could have scored one in the first half.

“I am so happy with his performance but my team was so good that it is difficult for me, from [goalkeeper Thibaut] Courtois to Didier, to speak about individual players.”