Mourinho will appeal FA charge

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho will appeal the Football Association’s charge of improper conduct following the defeat at Aston Villa.

The Portuguese was sent to the stands last Saturday at Villa Park following an enraged response to Ramires’ late sending off for a challenge on Karim El Ahmadi, when he encroached onto the field of play to confront referee Chris Foy.

Ramires’ dismissal was Chelsea’s second of the match after Willian was given his marching orders for two yellow cards earlier in the Premier League encounter.

Mourinho had until Monday to lodge an appeal and announced his intention to do so on Friday.

“Yes, I have decided. I don’t accept the charges,” he said.

“I will do it (make his defence) privately, but for obvious reasons I don’t accept the charges.”

Saturday sees Premier League leaders Chelsea host title rivals Arsenal in Arsene Wenger’s 1,000th game in charge.

And Mourinho refused to comment further on remarks he made last month when he branded Wenger a “specialist in failure”.

Mourinho did, however, pay tribute to the Frenchman and his milestone achievement.

“I believe that any one of us would love to have the same privilege with our clubs,” he said.

“I admire him and I admire Arsenal because it’s not possible to have 1,000 matches unless the club is a fantastic club in the way they support the manager, especially in the bad moments and especially when the bad moments were quite a lot.

“So I admire the manager and I admire the club

“I would like it (to reach 1,000 games), but it’s very, very difficult. It’s even more difficult in modern football but if I can relate my first three-and-a-half years at Chelsea and this one, I have a few.

“Let’s see if I can reach, not 1,000 but maybe 500, it would be fantastic.”