'Looking at the replays, there are no doubts' - Jose Mourinho agrees with penalty decision

 
PA
Agency9 November 2013

Jose Mourinho has backed Andre Marriner's decision to award his Chelsea side a controversial penalty deep into stoppage time.

Mourinho - who had not lost any of his previous 65 Premier League home games in two spells as Blues a manager, winning 51 - was in no doubt the referee had made the right call for the penalty.

"It is difficult for the team that is winning to accept because you are waiting for the last whistle and the penalty comes. But a penalty is a penalty, whether it is minute 94 or minute one," he said.

"This one was a penalty. From the bench, I did not know, I was too far away, but from looking at the (replay) screen, there are no doubts."

Mourinho felt West Brom's second goal should have been disallowed for a foul on Branislav Ivanovic.

"It is a big free-kick, just in front of the fourth official," he said.

"That's where I think the fourth official's job, instead of looking to see if the manager is in his technical area or not, he should participate in the game."

Mourinho was delighted with the response of his players to secure a point.

"After their second goal, our reaction could have been we die or we fight for life, and the team fought for life and threw everything into attack," he said.

Mourinho also praised the calmness of Hazard to cap a positive end to what had been a difficult week.

"Penalties are easy to score in training sessions - I score - as they are when you are winning 3-0 or 4-0, but this was a difficult one and the kid was very calm," he said.

Cesar Azpilicueta was again preferred at left-back to Ashley Cole.

Mourinho said: "Azpilicueta is playing very well. He was (first-choice) today, let's see what happens next week, but again he played with zero mistakes."

Clarke, meanwhile, was looking forward to catching up with his old mentor once the dust had settled at Stamford Bridge, having been on the receiving end of a "manly kiss" from the Portuguese after Chelsea's late equaliser.

He said: "We will respect each other's opinions. We won't speak about the penalty. We will speak about each others families."

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