Mourinho in hot water

As the club carted away its first trophy of the Roman Abramovich era, the tally of disciplinary investigations hanging over Chelsea rose to seven yesterday in Cardiff where the touch of brilliance shown by Jose Mourinho, during the 3-2 defeat of Liverpool, was almost matched by the eccentricity of his behaviour afterwards.

The former Porto coach was ordered from the Chelsea dugout after 80 minutes of the English League Cup final at the behest of the police who were concerned that his gesturing in the direction of Liverpool's supporters in the immediate aftermath of a Steven Gerrard own goal might have been seen as provocative by sections of the crowd.

Afterwards, however, Mourinho dismissed the suggestion that he had been taunting the opposing club's fans and insisted instead that the English media had been the target of his actions.

"I have the greatest of respect for the supporters of Liverpool, for the supporters of all clubs around the world," he said.

"What I did was for the English press who talked too much because we lost two games.

"They tried to do everything to take some confidence from us, but today we have taken the first title. Almost for sure we will have the second one, and the second one will be the big one.

"I keep reading that I have something to prove in England," he added, "but Alex Ferguson is the only European champion in England. After him? Nobody."

When a journalist put it to the coach that he had again gestured in the direction of the Liverpool fans after the game had ended and he had returned from the stand to greet his players, Mourinho became agitated and warned the reporter to, "be careful what you say".

He had, he claimed angrily, been waving to his wife in the crowd. "I had been blowing kisses to her before the game, too, but you didn't see that, did you?"

It was unclear last night whether Mourinho's wife was seated in the same section of the ground as many Liverpool fans, but the media were certainly located in a different area of the stadium.

The 42-year-old is now likely to face a Football League investigation at a time when he and his club are already the subject of six between FA and Uefa, who are considering a range of matters from an alleged approach to Ashley Cole to the players' ill discipline during the recent league win at Blackburn.

Another fine of a few thousand pounds is unlikely to concern either Mourinho or his employers unduly, however, in the wake of an impressive injury-time 3-2 win earned after the Londoners had initially fallen behind in the game's first minute.

"Liverpool defended well and fought well," he said afterwards, "and they were well organised the way all of Benitez's teams are. But we deserved to win today."

The coach was again instrumental in engineering the victory, repeatedly changing things as the minutes slipped past without an equaliser.