DRAMA AT STAMFORD BRIDGE

Mourinho infuriated as Chelsea salvage unbeaten record

MANCHESTER United manager Jose Mourinho had to be restrained by stewards in the aftermath of Ross Barkley’s 96th minute equaliser to salvage Chelsea’s unbeaten record under Maurizio Sarri in a thrilling 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge yesterday.

Mourinho took exception to the celebrations of one of Maurizio Sarri’s backroom staff, Marco Ianni, who ran in front of the Portuguese on the touchline, as he seemed set for a sweet victory over his old club after Anthony Martial scored twice to cancel out Antonio Rudiger’s opener.

Players and coaches from both benches had to separated in a melee after Barkley’s late strike.

Mourinho also then gestured with three fingers towards the Chelsea fans in reference to the three Premier League titles he won for the club in two spells in charge.

When asked about the incident, Mourinho said: “Oh come on, I can tell you that 97 minutes of the game was so good that you have to focus on that.

“I did not get respect back from Chelsea (fans) but that is not my responsibility. What I did here today I will do in Madrid, in Milan, in Porto, the reaction from the fans is not up to me.

“I am not annoyed with anything. What happened with Sarri’s assistant, Sarri was the first one to come to me and say he will resolve it.

“The assistant has already come to me and apologised, I told him to forget it. I have made a lot of mistakes in my career.

“We were the best team on the pitch. If you say before the game that one point at Stamford Bridge is a good result, it is so difficult to win here but after the game with the way the game was it is an awful result for us and a phenomenal result for them.

“We were in the game, we controlled their triggers, (Eden) Hazard and Jorginho was well controlled.

“After we were 2-1 up we had possibilities to score the third goal, we were the best team, we were calm in control.

“I hope every referee does the same as Mike Dean and gives six minutes, I don’t know where they came from. We always tried to play, there was no time-wasting.”

Barkley hailed his team’s neversay-die attitude.

“My confidence has grown but our target was to win the game so it is disappointing,” he said.

“The manager told me to help the team win the game and try and get a result. We conceded a goal that we should have stopped but we came back.”