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Chelsea's Mourinho takes subtle swipe at referee Atkinson

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho could again land himself in hot water after criticizing match officials.

The Portuguese tactician was speaking on Sky Sports' Goals on Sunday when he took a subtle swipe at referee Martin Atkinson regarding his side's 1-1 draw with Burnley at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

The Blues were held by the Clarets in west London but Mourinho suggests it should have been a different result if Atkinson hadn't have missed two calls for penalties from the home side and did not react so harshly to Nemanja Matic's push on Ashley Barnes which got the Serbia midfielder sent off in the 70th minute.

"The best players in the world they can make mistakes; the best players in the world miss penalties, the best goalkeepers in the world make mistakes," said Mourinho who hinted at bringing in video replay in the Premier League to assist with decisions.

"This gentleman (Atkinson) is one of the top referees in this country, he's one of the top referees in European football.

"He can make mistakes. He made four important mistakes (on Saturday). You want consistency but consistency in the right way.

"What would I improve (for the referees)?

"If the referee cannot see a penalty three metres in front of him, an official in front of a screen cannot miss it.

"If we want to protect the integrity and the honesty of the referees, if we want to believe - and I believe that the mistake is the consequence of a misinterpretation, of a bad position, of the unpredictability of the situation and of the game - I think technology can help.

"If I was a referee I would welcome it. It's the same thing with the goal-line technology: it makes a difference.

"You go one, two, three, four, five weeks without any incident and you think goal-line technology is not important but in a certain moment the technology will be important."

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