Jose Mourinho made sarcastic remarks about the performance of referee Mike Dean[GETTY]The Chelsea manager was unhappy after his side's title hopes were dealt a severe blow with defeat by bottom club Sunderland on Saturday. Gus Poyet's side won the match thanks to a late penalty from Fabio Borini, ending Mourinho's 77-game unbeaten home run.
Chelsea are facing a triple investigation by the Football Association after the match was marred by indiscipline and Mourinho's criticism of match officials.
Assistant first-team coach Rui Faria and midfielder Ramires look certain to be banned.
Faria tried to attack Dean for awarding Sunderland's penalty and Mourinho had to pull his lieutenant's hair to try to get him away from the referee. It took several backroom staff to manhandle Faria away and down the tunnel after he was dismissed for his outburst.
Ramires should have been given his third red card of the season for a blatant off-the-ball forearm smash into Seb Larsson's face.
Dean missed the incident but it will be picked up retrospectively and he is certain to be banned for four games and miss Chelsea's title run-in.
Mourinho, though, may be more fortunate despite his comments. He refused to take any questions after the game but delivered a message about Dean and referees' boss Riley laced with sarcasm.
He said: "Mike Dean's performance was unbelievable and when referees have unbelievable performances it's fair to congratulate them.
Rui Faria is almost certain to receive a ban for his aggressive action [GETTY]Mike Dean's performance was unbelievable and when referees have unbelievable performances it's fair to congratulate them
"He came here with one objective, the objective to make a fantastic performance and he did that.
"Congratulations to Mike Riley, because he's the referees' boss and what they are doing during the whole season is fantastic, especially in the last couple of months, especially in matches involving the teams that were in the title race - it's absolutely fantastic."
Mourinho, though, stopped short of out and out criticism and, as such, he may be more fortunate that Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers who was fined £8,000 by the FA for questioning the integrity of Greater Manchester referee Lee Mason, who made some controversial decisions during Liverpool's Boxing Day defeat at Manchester City.
Mourinho has already this season accused UEFA of having an agenda against him after Ramires was sent off in the European Super Cup final against Bayern Munich.
Mike Dean awarded a late penalty to Sunderand [GETTY]And he was sent to the stands in October for constantly questioning Anthony Taylor's decisions during Chelsea's win over Cardiff.
That was followed last month by another rant at referee Chris Foy, who he partly blamed for Ramires again getting sent off against Aston Villa, claiming the player had committed a two-footed lunge on Karim El Ahmadi, because Foy had caused all of the players' frustrations to boil over.
Mourinho was sent to the stands for coming on to the pitch to protest following Ramires' sending off and fined £8,000 - a decision he is appealing against.
An FA spokesman said they are awaiting the referee's report and will assess the situation tomorrow, the first working day after the weekend before deciding on any disciplinary action.
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