Chelsea braced for punishment after Jose Mourinho cancels Manchester City press conference

Chelsea are in hot water with football's authorities for the third time this week after manager Jose Mourinho broke Premier League rules by cancelling his media commitments ahead of the summit meeting with Manchester City.

The Premier League will ask the Blues for their observations should Mourinho fail to conduct any interviews with host broadcasters to preview the game against City and could fine the Portuguese boss for breaking regulation K.95.

Rules state that only in "exceptional circumstances" can a pre-match press conference not be fulfilled, leaving Chelsea to explain themselves to the league at the end of a week that has seen the club walk the disciplinary tightrope.

News of the cancellation came on the same day that Mourinho was fined £25,000 and warned over is future conduct by the Football Association for claiming referees have been influenced by a media "campaign" against Chelsea.

Furthermore, Chelsea also announced on 29 January that striker Diego Costa will appeal against a charge of violent conduct after being seen to stamp on Liverpool midfielder Emre Can during the League Cup semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge on 27 January.

Costa faces a minimum three-game ban and will discover on 30 January whether he has been successful in pleading his innocence but the Spain international faces being suspended for the weekend visit of City and the forthcoming league games against Aston Villa and Everton.

Mourinho stringently defended Costa and criticised an unnamed Sky Sports pundit for leading a campaign against Chelsea and his top scorer. Those comments could yet be seen by the governing body of bringing the game into disrepute.

Sky captured the footage which saw Costa stamp on Can, missed by referee Michael Oliver, and would have been used by The FA to retrospectively charge the player.

The 1-0 win over Liverpool, which saw Costa also involved in incidents with Martin Skrtel and Steven Gerrard, saw comparisons drawn between the behaviour of the ex-Atletico Madrid striker and Mourinho in the British media.

As a result of the three episodes, and fear over being reprimanded again by the FA for comments made in the media, Mourinho has decided against speaking this week but he could yet be financially sanctioned.

Upon the initial charge of misconduct against Mourinho being issued in the second week of January, assistant Steve Holland took the press conference to preview the game against Swansea City, while the 52-year-old missed three straight media briefings last season.

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson regularly cancelled press conferences during his lengthy spell at Old Trafford, while for seven years the Scot refused to speak to the BBC, but the Premier League never hit him with a financial penalty.