Jose Mourinho turned down suggestions that Liverpool striker Luis Suarez should have had a penalty in Chelsea's 2-1 win on Sunday by insisting the Uruguayan should have been booked instead.
Mourinho's men came from behind to keep the pressure on Arsenal at the top of the table with Samuel Eto'o in the spotlight.
Although Eto'o scored the winner, he was perhaps lucky to escape
punishment for an early challenge on Jordan Henderson -- it was from the
resulting free kick that Liverpool scored -- and then late on the
striker felled Luis Suarez in the penalty area. A frustrated Suarez felt
he had been fouled but Mourinho disagreed, making a diving gesture and
insisting simulation must be outlawed from the British game.
Mourinho told reporters: "Suarez lost a duel with (Cesar) Azpilicueta,
Azpilicueta has the ball and is leaving the box with the ball and now
he's doing an acrobatic swimming pool jump to try to get the penalty,
because he's so clever because he's in the area where the Liverpool
supporters behind. But (referee Howard) Webb is 10 metres away. And I
think the only mistake Webb did was not to give him a yellow card.''
Television pundits insisted it was a spot-kick and Mourinho suggested
there was a dearth of analysts with a Chelsea connection and joked that
he would take a role in broadcasting following his management career.
When pressed, Mourinho admitted there may have been contact between
Eto'o and Suarez, "when the ball is 10 metres away with Azpilicueta'',
even though he had earlier stated on Sky Sports 1 that Suarez went down
"like somebody shot him''.
Suarez was praised by Mourinho in the build up, but was unable to score
his 20th Premier League goal of the season on his 14th appearance as
Martin Skrtel's fourth-minute goal was cancelled out by a brilliant Eden
Hazard strike and Eto'o poked in a first-half winner. But Mourinho
wants the Uruguayan to end his penchant for going to ground.
"The player is amazing,'' the Portuguese added. "He does everything to
win and Brendan (Rodgers, the Liverpool manager) is doing a fantastic
job on him because he's changed. There's no doubt that he's changed.
"But when the situation is like this and you are losing comes the
nature of the player, the wild nature of the player or the cultural
nature of the player. Culturally people from that area (South America),
they like it. It's not also that area. There's a corner in Europe where I
belong to, that they also like (diving).''
Mourinho earlier paid tribute to the efforts of Premier League players
around the country for their performances throughout the busy festive
period with their third game in seven days.
"Premier League players in this country deserve fantastic respect
because what they do is amazing,'' he told Sky Sports 1. "To play in
this period is beautiful. I love it. I keep saying I love it. The
players are monsters in a good sense of the word... It is fantastic
propaganda for what football is.''
Meanwhile, David Luiz hailed Hazard for his matchwinning performance.
"Of course it is not very good to [concede] a goal in the first minutes
but there was a really strong mentality in the team, we gave everything
on the pitch and it was magic tonight,'' Luiz said on Sky Sports 1.
"Eden had a great game tonight and I'm happy we have players like Eden
in the team because then I see amazing football.''
The win keeps Chelsea in third, just two points from leaders Arsenal. "We will keep fighting for the title,'' Luiz added.
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