José Mourinho has confirmed that Tottenham have appealed against Son Heung-min’s red card against Chelsea and has doubled down on his criticism of Antonio Rüdiger, once again accusing the German defender of cheating to get the South Korean sent off.
Son was shown a red card after a VAR review showed him kicking out at Rüdiger, who was subjected to racist abuse by a section of the crowd during Chelsea’s 2-0 win at Tottenham.
However Mourinho dismissed suggestions his player’s reaction was naive.
The Spurs manager insisted it was an “insignificant” act from Son, who was provoked into a red card against Bournemouth last season, and instead sought to shift the focus on to Rüdiger, arguing the Chelsea defender had fooled the officials with an exaggerated tumble.
“I prefer to go the other way around,” Mourinho said. “I hope the Premier League is still the Premier League and will always be the Premier League and I think the focus should be on Antonio Rüdiger and not on Son. In the Premier League I love there is no space also for what Rüdiger did. Stand up and play, man. This is the Premier League.
“In some countries, especially now Latin cultures, you go to Latin America, Portugal, Spain, Italy and that happens, it is a cultural thing, but not in the Premier League. The moment we try to punish the reaction of some player, insignificant reaction, but you try to punish and you let it go the other one, it is because then you become part of it.
“That’s why I was trying to joke and making a bit of fun about it. Come on, do you think Rüdiger plays the next game or do you think he’s injured? I think he plays. And we speak about Son and don’t speak about him.”
Chelsea’s manager, Frank Lampard, has backed Rüdiger but Mourinho is convinced Son is the victim of injustice.
“I hope Son is not punished five times,” Mourinho said. “One time was the foul Rüdiger did on him. The second is to be sent off. The third would be not to play against Brighton. The fourth not to play against Norwich and the fifth not to play against Southampton. It would be a big loss. We don’t have a big squad. This moment is a moment where it is normal to think about rotations. We don’t have Erik Lamela and it’s a big loss for us. But if that happens then we have to try to cope with it and to fight against injustice. But the way to fight against injustice is to give our best.”