Jose Mourinho Blast Condemned by Graham Poll in Cesc Fabregas Chelsea Dive Row

Former referee Graham Poll has hit back at Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho after the Portuguese manager criticised Premier League officials for what he feels is a vendetta against the league leaders.

The Blues were held to a 1-1 draw by Southampton at St. Mary’s on Saturday, but the stalemate was overshadowed by Cesc Fabregas being denied a certain penalty in the second half.

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The Spaniard was clearly fouled by Saints defender Matt Targett inside the box, but ref Anthony Taylor booked Fabregas for diving, leaving Mourinho to enter into yet another trademark rant—reported via Neil Ashton of MailOnline:

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The reality is that there are penalties and there are penalties - this was one was big, like Big Ben. Referees are not here to guess, they are there to see. He assumed dishonest with Cesc and he is wrong. 

Match after match coaches are saying Chelsea players are diving. Out of nothing Sam Allardyce starts talking about my players. I will go to the referee, wish him a good year and tell him he will be ashamed.

There is a campaign against Chelsea. In other countries where I worked before, tomorrow in the sports papers it would be front-page scandal because it is a scandal. In this country—and I am happy with that, more than happy with that—we will just say that it was a big mistake with a big influence in the result.

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While Mourinho appears convinced that the world is against him every time something goes wrong, he does have a very valid case with this latest incident, and broadcaster Ian Abrahams agrees:

Results rather went Chelsea’s way over the course of the weekend, but if the Blues don’t go on to lift the Premier League title at the end of the campaign, Fabregas' supposed dive could well be looked back upon as a deciding factor.

Eden Hazard cancelling out Sadio Mane’s early strike on the stroke of half-time gave Chelsea some momentum heading into the second period, but Taylor’s decision seemed to take the sting out of their tail.

Had the Blues been awarded—and probably dispatched—the penalty, you’d think they’d happily go on and win the match, but as it was, they weren’t far away from leaving the south coast empty handed.

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However, with Branislav Ivanovic, Willian and Diego Costa’s names all being taken by referees for diving in recent weeks, it could be a case of the club’s reputation contributing to their own downfall.

That’s a point Poll makes in his column for MailOnline, although he did accept that Taylor had made a mistake with his decision on Saturday:

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It was as clear a penalty as you could want to see but referee Anthony Taylor not only denied the league leaders, but he also cautioned the Spaniard for diving. Select group referees meet up regularly and discuss issues and trends to prepare as best they can for their next assignments.

Preparation is perfectly acceptable but prejudgment is not. Chelsea remain top and by definition are still the best team in the league so far; they deserve better from the officials but also need to acknowledge that they have contributed to this problem themselves. 

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What happens from here, then? Mourinho has kicked up enough fuss in his time for referees to simply ignore it, but such a clear-cut decision going against him will have repercussions.

The next time a Chelsea man goes down in the box aiming for 10s across the board, will a referee have the bottle to dish out a yellow card and then be told he’s “campaigning” against Mourinho?

For the sake of football, let’s hope so.

Taking diving out of football is nothing but a good thing for the game, but unless referees are intelligent in their approach to doing so, they’ll create more of a problem than they eradicate.