Van Gaal labels van Persie ‘stupid’ for ripping off shirt

Robin van Persie found himself labelled "stupid" by Louis van Gaal following his late equaliser for Manchester United, although the Old Trafford manager may well have been referring to the Dutch international’s analysis of their team’s title credentials rather than the caution he received for ripping off his shirt.

“You have seen a stupid reaction after the goal,” said van Gaal of van Persie’s 94th minute finish. “You can be excited but you don’t have to pull your shirt off. Then you have a yellow card, that is not so smart.

“But yes, we deserved a point. You know that, Jose Mourinho knows that also. I said to the boys, it wasn’t our best performance and that’s a pity because in these moments you have to show yourself against the better teams.”

Suitably buoyed by post-match adrenalin, van Persie had already emerged by that point to answer the question over whether the game had convinced him United are capable of catching Chelsea, 10 points above them.

“Of course we can,” said van Persie. “There is still a long way to go. It is still early doors and only nine or ten games played. It is not even halfway so yes.”

Mourinho was equally complimentary about United and his former mentor van Gaal, although there was also a healthy tinge of diplomacy about the way he claimed United could still challenge for the title.

Still, for the vast majority of the game, there was little to suggest United have any realistic, short-term hope of challenging with Chelsea who now have a four-point cushion thanks to an opening goal claimed by returning hero Didier Drogba, his first in the league for the club in two and a half years.

“Of course I prefer to be in front,” said Mourinho of the league table. “We are four points in front and you can say at this moment next weekend we will still be top of the league. We have a little space for a mistake … or a referee’s mistake.”

Van Persie’s celebrations made him one of nine cautions in the game, a surprisingly high figure given the non-violent nature of the contest, to go with Bratislav Ivanovic’s red card and the performance of referee Phil Dowd certainly irritated Mourinho, although the Chelsea manager was careful not to make direct criticism for fear of falling foul of FA disciplinary procedure.

“I did five interviews and in all five, the first question was my comments on the referee,” he explained. “I told them, my comment is that when five ask me the same thing, I don’t need to answer.

“I prefer not to speak about the (Ivanovic) second yellow card because if I have to speak about the second yellow card then I have to start in the first-half.

“I have to go through many things that happened in the first-half — the penalty on Ivanovic, the accumulation of yellow cards, the fouls he (Dowd) was not giving, the throw-ins just in front of me and he and the linesman kept giving them in the other direction.

“Chelsea was fantastic and even in these circumstances then even more credit for my players. The result is not the result we came for. We came to win and we showed that from the first minute. The performance is always fantastic, the result not so good, but acceptable.”