Mourinho furious as Blues foiled

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However, the Portuguese still made heavy implications about the performance of Chris Foy in his team’s 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa, and remarkably declared it would be “helpful” if the official didn’t referee a Chelsea game again. Mourinho also alluded to the fact Foy has sent off six Chelsea players in his last eight games overseeing the team, stating that “many times” there are “problems”, and said he would prepare his side differently if they are assigned the official again.

Two of those red cards came in this game, as both Willian and Ramires were sent off, with Mourinho himself soon following after a last-minute on-pitch melee.

Those decisions were just part of a series of borderline incidents to go against Chelsea, with Nemanja Matic seeing a goal ruled out for an adjudged handball at 0-0 and Villa’s Joe Bennett finding himself fortunate to avoid an earlier red card for hauling down Ramires. On 82 minutes, then, Fabian Delph fired a the brilliant winner.

Mourinho pointedly compared the game to Chelsea’s notorious 2-0 defeat to QPR in October 2011, which also saw Foy send off two players, and said his squad had discussed that fact.

“During the week, the players were speaking about the situation and I think, from now on, the next time we have Mr Foy I have to work my people in a different way, because I don’t want.”

When it was put to him that games involving Foy may become an “issue” for his team, Mourinho said “they have a reason”.

“Maybe it’s helpful that the committee doesn’t send him to our matches.”

The Chelsea manager was asked if he would specifically make that request.

“No, I don’t have the right to request. It’s just, I think they have to analyse the situation and see if every time he has Chelsea — or not every time — but many times he has Chelsea and problems are there. I think maybe it would be a good decision but I don’t care with referees.”

Mourinho, however, may also reflect on a few decisions of his own. If Foy got some calls wrong, so did the Chelsea manager. Of late, the league leaders have developed a conspicuous trend of starting slowly but finishing strongly. Their last three games prior to this were all 0-0 at half-time, with Chelsea eventually doing just enough to win each of them late on.

The problem with that, however, is the decreasing size of the margins will eventually lead to the kind of tight matches where importance of knife-edge individual moments is amplified. That was the case Saturday, as Mourinho effectively admitted.

“Difficult match, difficult opponents. Not a fantastic performance. A good solid performance, the kind of performance where you feel that you might win, you might not, but you never lose.”

Unless, of course, you leave yourself hostage to fortune. As Chelsea went for the win after half-time, they found themselves too open, and Willian bundled over Fabian Delph to receive an unlucky second yellow card. Mourinho’s team suddenly had too much to do, with too little time, and too few players against an impressively assertive Villa. Paul Lambert’s side eventually exploited the extra space for Delph to turn home the deserved winner on 82 minutes. For all the game’s controversy, there could be no faulting Villa.

Mourinho, however, otherwise refused to articulate his faults with the referee.

“This is the kind of referee performance that I don’t want to say single word because if I say the first word I will say 10, 100, 1,000 and there will be charge and I will be accused of bringing the game into disrepute so I don’t say a word.”

He evidently said enough in the on-pitch chaos after Ramires was sent off for a stoppage-time stamp on Karim El-Ahmadi. Foy ordered Mourinho off, and Chelsea are now looking less stable on top of the table.

ASTON VILLA: Guzan 7; Lacuna 7, Vlaar 7, Baker 7, Bennett 7 (Clark 77; 7); El Ahmadi 8, Westwood 7, Delph 9; Weimann 8, Benteke 8, Agbonlahor 7 (Albrighton 75; 8)

CHELSEA: Cech 6; Ivanovic 6, Cahill 7, Terry 6, Azpilicueta 6; Ramires 6, Matic 7; Willian 7, Oscar 5 (Schurrle 67; 6), Hazard 6; Torres 5 (Ba 67; 5)