Jose Mourinho Claims Chelsea Should Be 12 Points Ahead Of Manchester City In Title Race
Jose Mourinho has called for video technology to help referees and says his Chelsea side should be 12 points clear at the top.
Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Burnley on Saturday, combined with Manchester City's 5-0 rout of Newcastle, means the leaders' Premier League cushion has been cut to just five points.
But, recalling games against Southampton and Tottenham – when Mourinho claimed his side should have been awarded penalties – the Blues boss believes his men could instead be 12 points ahead of the defending champions.
Speaking during a surprise appearance on Goals on Sunday, Mourinho said: “If you are asking me about the five points difference I would say to you, if we are in a normal situation where the mistakes are part of the game and sometimes go in our favour and sometimes go against us, it wouldn't be five it would be 12.
“It would be 12 because we are speaking about two points at Southampton and we are speaking about three points at Tottenham. We are speaking about many situations.”
Mourinho was left to rue a further two points lost at Stamford Bridge as Ben Mee struck late for the relegation-threatened Clarets and blamed the result on four “key moments” in what was a thinly-veiled swipe at referee Martin Atkinson.
Elaborating on Atkinson's performance during a game that saw two Chelsea penalty appeals denied as well as Nemanja Matic sent off for an angry reaction to an Ashley Barnes tackle, Mourinho said: “The best players in the world they can make mistakes; the best players in the world miss penalties, the best goalkeepers in the world make mistakes.
“This gentleman (Atkinson) is one of the top referees in this country, he's one of the top referees in European football.
“He can make mistakes. He made four important mistakes (on Saturday). You want consistency but consistency in the right way.
“What would I improve (for the referees)?
“If the referee cannot see a penalty three metres in front of him, an official in front of a screen cannot miss it.
“If we want to protect the integrity and the honesty of the referees, if we want to believe – and I believe that the mistake is the consequence of a misinterpretation, of a bad position, of the unpredictability of the situation and of the game – I think technology can help.
“If I was a referee I would welcome it. It's the same thing with the goal-line technology: it makes a difference.
“You go one, two, three, four, five weeks without any incident and you think goal-line technology is not important but in a certain moment the technology will be important.”
REUTERS