Chelsea
are angry and deeply embarrassed over Saturday's touchline incident
involving Jose Mourinho and their assistant coach at Stamford Bridge,
according to Sky sources.
Mourinho's return to Stamford Bridge ended with ugly scenes as the
Portuguese reacted angrily to the celebrations by Marco Ianni, second
assistant to manager Maurizio Sarri, after Ross Barkley's last-gasp
equaliser in the 2-2 draw.
Barkley fired home on 96 minutes to salvage a point for the hosts with a
furious Mourinho having to be restrained by stewards before Sarri managed to
reconcile the Manchester United boss.
Chelsea regard the behaviour of Ianni, who spent two years as a technical
assistant to Sarri at Napoli before joining the Blues, as falling well below
the standard expected of the club's staff.
It is understood Ianni had watched most of the match from the upper tier of
the East Stand and only came down to the team bench about 15 minutes before
full time - something he is entitled to do in his role as analyst.
However, the club feel that leaving his seat and celebrating the goal in
front of United's bench was hugely regrettable and not what they expect from
a member of the backroom team.
The scuffle around the bench and players' tunnel took several minutes to
settle down and involved over 20 players and staff.
Mourinho said a "lack of education was to blame", but, accepted the mistake.
He told Sky Sports: "I am not annoyed with anything. What happened was with
Sarri's assistant, and Sarri was the first one to come to me to say he would
resolve the problem internally with me.
"After that his assistant come to me in Sarri's office and apologised to me.
I immediately said if you really feel that way, and you want to apologise,
of course I accept apologies, and to forget it because I made lots of
mistakes in my career.
"So I'm not going to kill you because of one."
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