Jose Mourinho spoke on his dismissal from the pitch but not on his two players who were shown red.
A dramatic game at Villa Park went the home side’s way after Fabian Delph’s late winner. At that point we were down to 10 men after Willian was shown a second yellow card three-quarters of the way through the game, and our numbers were reduced to nine in injury time when Ramires was dismissed for a bad tackle. In the aftermath our manager was also sent to the stands by referee Chris Foy.
Mourinho began by assessing the situation facing his side in the league…
‘We have the same number of points we had before the match,’ said our manager.
‘We are not in the title race; we are in a match race. We play every match and try to win, we think we can win, we give everything to win. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. That’s our race: to improve and try our best every match.
‘Aston Villa’s performance was good. The game was difficult, it was not an easy match but we created enough.’
Our manager was sent to the stands in injury time
‘It’s a big occasion for me to know about the character of Mr.Foy. I want to know what he’s going to write about my sending off. If it was because I was on the pitch, I think there should be 10 people from the dugouts (sent off) – me, my two assistants, Paul, Paul’s assistants, Agbonlahor who caused an aggression on Ramires from behind, another couple of players. Almost all of us calmed down and tried to stop.’
On Willian and Ramires’s red cards
‘I prefer not to speak about them. If I speak I will be in trouble and I don’t want to do something we are not allowed to do – speak about the refs. I don’t want to be charged with bringing the game into disrepute so I don’t comment.
‘I did try to speak to Mr Foy twice, once on the pitch and once in the dressing rooms. In the dressing rooms I asked politely if he could give me five seconds and he refused.’
Our manager’s opposite number Paul Lambert successfully guided one of his teams to victory over Chelsea for the first time…
‘I thought we were outstanding regardless of any decision. Our own team, to a man, were brilliant against a top side. Fabian’s finish was world class and he had to do it against one of the best keepers in Europe. We deserved to win regardless of the red card.’