CHELSEA manager Jose Mourinho resumed his hostility towards referees and his Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger after his team’s 0-0 draw at Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League on Tuesday.
The Portuguese was fined STG50,000 ($A107,000) by England’s Football Association and given a suspended one-game stadium ban for saying a referee had been “afraid” to give his side a penalty during their recent 3-1 loss at home to Southampton.
But the suspended ban does not extend to European competition, enabling Mourinho to return to the theme after referee Damir Skomina denied Cesc Fabregas a spot-kick during the first half of the Group G game in Kiev.
Echoing recent remarks by Wenger - for which the Frenchman avoided punishment by the FA - Mourinho told British television channel BT Sport: “The referee was weak and naive.
“Big penalty. I cannot understand what the goal referee does, because he doesn’t make a clear decision, too. And when the result is 0-0 and such a penalty is not given, it is a crucial moment in the game.”
As Mourinho dragged Wenger’s name into the conversation, the Arsenal manager was over 2000 kilometres away in London, celebrating his team’s 2-0 win over Bayern Munich.
Mourinho was referring to Wenger’s comments that referee Mike Dean had been “weak” and “naive” for sending off Arsenal defender Gabriel during the north London club’s 2-0 defeat at Chelsea last month.
Gabriel’s red card, which he received for flicking out a foot at Chelsea striker Diego Costa, was subsequently rescinded by the FA on appeal.
Tuesday’s result left Chelsea in third place in Group G, a point below Dynamo and three points behind leaders Porto.
Serhiy Rebrov’s Dynamo will also take heart from the game, however, particularly as it followed a 3-0 loss at home to Shakhtar Donetsk, which was their first league defeat in 39 games.
Mourinho made three changes to the team that beat Aston Villa 2-0 in the Premier League on Saturday, with Hazard, Gary Cahill and Nemanja Matic replacing Pedro Rodriguez, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Baba Rahman.
Hazard, last season’s Player of the Season, had been upbraided by Mourinho for his lack of defensive efforts, but he was quick to make his presence felt on his return to the starting XI.
In the ninth minute, a deflected shot from Fabregas found its way to the Belgian, who shifted the ball onto his right foot and curled a shot goalwards, only for Dynamo’s 40-year-old-goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskiy to brilliantly tip it onto the post.
It was then that the penalty incident that irked Mourinho occurred, with Slovenian referee Damir Skomina waving play on when Fabregas tumbled after being sandwiched between Serhiy Rybalka and Yevhen Khacheridi.
Pursuing their strong start, Chelsea saw Willian’s left-wing free-kick narrowly elude Diego Costa, while Nemanja Matic slalomed through the Dynamo defence and poked a right-foot shot across goal and wide.
Chelsea were showing a zip and snap scarcely seen this season, but Vitaliy Buyalskiy served a reminder of the hosts’ threat mid-way through the first half with a left-foot shot that flicked off John Terry and flashed narrowly wide.
The visitors continued to exert pressure early in the second period, with Willian bending a 25-yard free-kick against the bar and Fabregas driving a shot straight at Shovkovskiy.
But with each chance they did not take, so the risk of a sucker-punch loomed larger, and Dynamo began to make inroads of their own.
With Chelsea’s players caught upfield, Andriy Yarmolenko released Derlis Gonzalez with a showy, no-look pass and the Paraguayan cut inside before forcing Asmir Begovic to save at his near post.
Mourinho sent Oscar on in place of Fabregas for the final 15 minutes, but Dynamo continued to threaten.
After a sloppy pass from visiting captain Terry, Denys Garmash set up fellow substitute Junior Moraes with a whipped cross from the right, but Begovic bravely threw himself at the Brazilian’s feet.
Willian almost had the last word for the men in blue, but he could only curl wide from just outside the box.
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