‘I can be very defensive and say nothing, or I can be myself’ says Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho wants to know why Chelsea are, in his opinion, treated differently when it comes to disciplinary matters after highlighting an elbow incident involving Manchester United striker Robin van Persie.

The Chelsea manager, whose side maintain a seven-point lead in the Premier League, has questioned the consistency of the Football Association's disciplinary department, suggesting had a Chelsea player used his elbow in the same way Van Persie did at West Ham United last Sunday he would have been banned.

Mourinho said: “The same people that suspended my player (Diego Costa) didn’t want to suspend a player this weekend.

“And they could. This weekend a player could be suspended and he wasn’t.”

When asked which player he was referring to, Mourinho gestured with an elbow in a clear reference to Van Persie’s challenge on West Ham defender James Tomkins, an incident was dealt with by the match officials, so cannot be subject to retrospective action.

“I know that if it was one of mine, I know,” Mourinho added.

“Last season happened the same thing, when Ramires was suspended,” for elbowing Sunderland’s Sebastian Larsson.

“It was exactly the same thing. A Manchester City player kicked a player on the floor at Norwich and nothing happened.”

That was a reference to Yaya Toure’s challenge on Ricky van Wolfswinkel, which went unpunished.

United manager Louis van Gaal defended the conduct of his player at his press conference on Tuesday. When asked whether he thought Van Persie deliberately elbowed Tomkins, the Dutchman said: “No.”

Mourinho also declined to comment on Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson avoiding sanction for his touchline grapple with Crystal Palace midfielder James McArthur – “I have only thoughts about myself, not about Nigel,” he said – but did wonder how Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger avoided punishment for pushing him at Stamford Bridge last October.

Mourinho repeated his claim made two weeks after the incident that he would have been given a stadium ban had he been the perpetrator, rather than the victim, of Wenger’s push.

“If I push a manager in my technical area, you know that I will be stadium banned,” Mourinho said.

“We all know. Why? We don’t know. You can’t say we don’t know why, but I think we all know that if I do something like that I would be serious, serious trouble.”

The Portuguese was fined £25,000 (Dh140,000) last month for saying there was a “clear campaign” against Chelsea after the December draw at Southampton.

Mourinho is not the only manager to have his comments scrutinised as Manchester United manager Van Gaal was charged for his comments after the FA Cup draw at League Two Cambridge.

The Chelsea manager added: “I can be very defensive and say nothing, or I can be myself and say what I feel.

“And then there is a line where you never know the way they analyse it and they think you can or can’t say that.

“Press conferences, especially after matches, are very, very difficult for us.”

Mourinho learned of his fine on the day Costa was charged for treading on Liverpool’s Emre Can.

The striker was given a three-match ban, missing matches with Manchester City, Aston Villa and the final game of his suspension is at home to Everton on Wednesday night

Midfielder John Obi Mikel (knee) is the only definite injury absentee for Wednesday’s match, with Cesc Fabregas (hamstring) fit again.

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