Jose Mourinho takes aim at referee Andre Marriner after ‘painful’ penalty in Chelsea defeat

The Portuguese was upset by the performance of the official in the 1-0 loss against his former club

Jose Mourinho gestures during defeat to Chelsea (Getty)

Jose Mourinho criticised the performance of referee Andre Marriner in his Tottenham side's 1-0 defeat to Chelsea after a "painful" penalty.

Jorginho dispatched the spot kick in the first half, following a foul from Eric Dier on Timo Werner, which ultimately proved the difference between the sides at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

But Mourinho maintained the decision to award a spot kick was "difficult to accept", with the result leaving Spurs seven points off top four in the battle to qualify for next season's Champions League.

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"It was a bit of a struggle but how many chances (did Chelsea have)? The penalty? We didn't have the ball, correct. We didn't create in the first half, correct," Mourinho told reporters after the game.

"But the struggle is the penalty, in the end it is a penalty that decides the game, a couple of chances they had, a couple of chances we had.

"They score a penalty that is not a penalty if you say is a dangerous situation, one on one, almost scoring? It is a penalty that is difficult to accept, so to lose the game to a penalty like this is a bit painful.

Mourinho then revealed that he approached Marriner to express his dissatisfaction at his performance.

"I told him [Marriner] something that he knows already," Mourinho added. "That I consider him to be one of the best referees in the Premier League and I care for him.

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"He's a referee that I have big admiration for. That gives me probably good position to tell him that I didn't like his performance.

"So it was basically like that. I have a very good relationship with Andre and that gives me a good position to say that I didn't like the performance."

PA also contributed to this report