Van Gaal unhappy with ‘stupid’ Van Persie in draw against Chelsea

MANCHESTER

Louis van Gaal labelled compatriot Robin van Persie “stupid” after his celebrations in scoring a dramatic late equaliser for Manchester United in their 1-1 draw at home to Premier League leaders Chelsea saw the experienced Dutch striker booked.

Van Gaal looked on course to fall to a defeat against Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who worked under him for three years at Barcelona, until van Persie struck in the 94th minute at Old Trafford on Sunday.

But while van Gaal was obviously relieved to have secured what he felt was a deserved point, he was not so impressed with his star forward’s response in celebrating the dramatic goal.

“You have seen a stupid reaction after the goal,” said van Gaal. “You can be excited but you don’t have to pull your shirt off. Then you have a yellow card, that is not so smart.

“But yes, we deserved a point. You know that, Jose Mourinho knows that also. “I said to the boys, it wasn’t our best performance and that’s a pity because in these moments you have to show yourself against the better teams,” the veteran Dutch manager added of a result that left his side 10 points behind Chelsea.

BOOKED PLAYERS
Van Persie was one of nine players booked during the match, a surprisingly high figure given the non-violent nature of the contest, to go with Branislav Ivanovic’s red card, for a second yellow, after his foul on Angel di Maria led to the free-kick that presented van Persie with his chance to equalise.

And the performance of referee Phil Dowd certainly irritated Mourinho, although the Chelsea manager was careful not to make direct criticism for fear of falling foul of Football Association disciplinary procedures.

“I did five interviews and in all five, the first question was my comments on the referee,” he explained. “I told them, my comment is that when five ask me the same thing, I don’t need to answer. I prefer not to speak about the (Ivanovic) second yellow card because if I have to speak about the second yellow card then I have to start in the first half,” the Portuguese manager added.

“I have to go through many things that happened in the first half — the penalty on Ivanovic, the accumulation of yellow cards, the fouls he (Dowd) was not giving, the throw-ins just in front of me and he and the linesman kept giving them in the other direction. Chelsea was fantastic and even in these circumstances then even more credit for my players. The result is not the result we came for.

“We came to win and we showed that from the first minute. The performance is always fantastic, the result not so good, but acceptable,” said Mourinho, whose team now lead second-placed Southampton by four points.

United will not have long to rest on their laurels with a visit to Eastlands for the Manchester derby against champions Man City next weekend and van Gaal does not know how his team will respond to a creditable performance against Chelsea.