Jose Mourinho was sent off yesterday for a second time in a month as his Manchester United side drew against West Ham at Old Trafford.
Elsewhere, Alexis Sanchez scored twice as Arsenal kept pace with the leading pack by winning 3-1 at home to Bournemouth.
The Portuguese boss kicked a water bottle in reaction to referee Jon Moss showing Paul Pogba a yellow card for diving. Replays showed West Ham’s Mark Noble did not make contact with the France midfielder.
Mourinho, sent off by Mark Clattenburg during last month’s 0-0 draw at home to Burnley, got his marching orders from the official moments later. Moss also dismissed him in October 2015, when Mourinho was in charge of Chelsea.
The touchline drama came after two goals were scored in the opening quarter of the match.
The Hammers took the lead in the second minute when Diafra Sakho headed in from Dimitri Payet’s free-kick. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was partly at fault for the goal but made amends in the 21st minute when he nodded in from Pogba’s dinked delivery.
The hosts were thwarted on several occasions by Hammers goalkeeper Darren Randolph, while Jesse Lingard had the ball in the net for the home side but it was correctly ruled out for offside.
Mourinho is becoming a familiar figure in the stands after red mist descended for the second time in a matter of weeks.
Earlier this month he was banned and fined for an incident in the tunnel at half-time during the match against Burnley, and in a separate case was fined £50,000 for comments made about referee Anthony Taylor before United’s match with Liverpool.
Both incidents came a year after Mourinho served a one-match stadium ban for an abusive rant at Moss during half-time of a Premier League game between Chelsea and West Ham.
He was also fined £50,000 for saying that referees were afraid to award the Blues penalties during their 3-1 loss to Southampton in October 2015.
Any feelings of euphoria from the 4-0 Europa League win over Feyenoord on Thursday will have disappeared after this result.
Mourinho’s men are now 11 points shy of leaders Chelsea following their fifth draw in seven league matches. In that period they have only won one game.
On Sunday they were thwarted by the brilliance of Randolph. The Hammers stopper – playing only his second league game of the season – twice blocked from Ibrahimovic and made instinctive saves to deny Marcus Rashford and Lingard.
He also pushed a Henrikh Mkhitaryan shot on to the post – the follow-up was tapped into the net by the offside Lingard.
And when Randolph was rounded by Ibrahimovic after an awful James Collins back pass, Cheikhou Kouyate was on hand to hook the ball clear of danger.
Arsenal ended a run of three straight draws in all competitions with victory over Bournemouth at the Emirates Stadium.
With England midfielder Jack Wilshere watching from the stands due to the terms of his loan from Arsenal to Bournemouth, the home side took a 12th-minute lead courtesy of a horror moment from Simon Cook.
In seeking to play the ball back to goalkeeper Adam Federici from the right, he undercooked his pass horribly, giving Sanchez the time to pick his spot and put Arsenal ahead.
Bournemouth equalised in the 23rd minute when Callum Wilson netted from the penalty spot after Nacho Monreal was adjudged to have fouled him.
It was a harsh call, but Monreal made amends in the 53rd minute, masterfully steering Mesut Ozil’s cross back across goal for Theo Walcott to restore Arsenal’s lead with a rare header.
Sanchez made the game safe in stoppage time by tapping in substitute Olivier Giroud’s cross.
