You have to hand it to Jose Mourinho. He just doesn’t give it a rest, not even after a wonderful Clasico that was possibly the least violent and tense since his arrival at the Santiago Bernabeu. Still, all he and Pepe could do was to talk about how the referee helped Barcelona avoid a loss.

The opinions diverge on who actually earned more from the draw at the Camp Nou. In my opinion it was Barcelona, who came in with more to lose. They are 8 points ahead and a lot of problems defensively. The Clasico wasn’t coming at the perfect time for them, despite the perfect record to start off the season. On the other side of the fence, Real Madrid simply had to win to give themselves a chance in the title race, slowly but steadily slipping away from them, unless something unexpected happens.

The reaction by Mourinho confirms my theory. Whenever his teams don’t get the result they needed, he was hoping for, it’s on to talk about everything but football. The referees, the media, sponsors at desperate times (remember his UNICEF rant?). Real Madrid were probably the better team, but Mourinho and his enforcer on the pitch, Pepe, prefer to push different matters into the headlines.

Mourinho: Real Madrid is a gentlemanly club and penalties not signaled cannot be talked about, although I like the truth. Delgado is a good referee, but at a deciding moment of the game he made a big mistake.

A referee everyone, wall to wall, agreed did a great job at defusing tensions, keeping the match a steady pace despite not allowing the quick free kicks to be taken and using a bit of mercy in his judgment, settling for warnings and later yellow cards, all to Real Madrid players by the way.

Pepe: Benzema had a chance and then there was maybe a penalty on Ozil. Barcelona players love drama. You have all seen it. I didn’t touch Iniesta at all but you all saw how he kept rolling on the floor. We are used to this. The final 2-2 result was not fair, we kept pushing forward and deserved the victory.

Pepe seems to forget about his own diving, and his own little dirty kicks on players which usually go unseen by referees, while seem to be a matter of the norm for everyone else watching him on the pitch. Focusing on Andres Iniesta’s dive and erasing everything else seems a bit desperate.

Real Madrid are the team that’s under pressure, looking out of the title race before the season even began, barely in October. Pushing the spotlight towards referees and the usual Barcelona conspiracies (only by hinting) is the usual Mourinho tactic of brushing away any blame he might have in the matter, when this season might be deemed as a failure, and he’ll regret staying on for a third season.

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