Arsenal vs Chelsea: Jose Mourinho: Gunners Like to Cry

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho believes Arsenal acted like cry babies after the home side were not too happy at the lack of protection given by the referee for a foul on Mikel Arteta and then a penalty for Theo Walcott.

Both decisions went Chelsea's way, with Mikel's high-enough-to-be-censured tackle actually breaking Arteta's shin-pad, while referee Mike Dean waved away claims for a penalty when Willian brought down Walcott inside the box.

Mourinho, who not surprisingly, deemed both tackles to be fair, took the Arsenal-with-their-foreigners-like-to-cry approach, in defence of the no-calls.

"You know, they like to cry," Mourinho said when asked to assess the referee's performance. "That's tradition. But I prefer to say, and I was telling it to the fourth official, that English people -- Frank Lampard, for example -- would never provoke a situation like that.

"Players from other countries, especially some countries, have that in their blood. So, if there is contact or an opponent is aggressive, they don't keep going. But this is English football. Foreign players are bringing lots of good things.

"They come here because they are talented. But I prefer English blood in football. English blood in this situation is: 'Come on, let's go.' Mikel's tackle is hard and aggressive but football is for men or for women with fantastic attitude. It's true."

Chelsea actually had the same number of British players in their lineup - three - as Arsenal; but then maybe the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott are not British - or English in relation to the latter two -- enough for Mourinho.

Arsene Wenger, of course, saw things the other way, and believes Dean did not have the greatest of games. "I think it was a penalty, honestly," the Frenchman said. "If I am wrong I apologise but from outside it looked a penalty. I haven't seen it on video.

"I can understand [why Chelsea think the referee did well]. I think the referee did not have a great game."

Arteta, the man who bore the brunt of that Mikel tackle, wasn't too happy with the challenge, even if he is not too sure what colour card it warranted. "I haven't seen the challenge from John Obi Mikel again but my ankle is swollen big time," he said. "He broke my shin-pad and he was late.

"The referee had to make the decision and he decided it wasn't a red card. Theo Walcott is saying that it was also 100 percent a penalty, so we were unlucky tonight."

Watching Chelsea play on Monday night, it was much more symptomatic of Mourinho's Chelsea teams in his first spell, where defence was the first form of attack.

Mourinho came to the Emirates to ensure they left with at least a point and the Portuguese admitted he was quite happy in the end, with the result seeing the top five - Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Everton -- separated by just two points.

"Happy with the result? Not unhappy, I would say," Mourinho said. "We came to win, we wanted to win and it was very important not to lose because, if we did, we'd be five points behind the leader. Now we are two points behind both leaders, a completely different picture. So, I would say, we tried to win but we are not unhappy with a point."