Ronald Koeman says Southampton deserve win despite José Mourinho's referee complaints

Southampton manager Ronaldo Koeman has hit back at José Mourinho's referee complaints in his side 3-1 victory at Chelsea on Saturday, 3 October. The Dutch boss believes his side were superior to the Blues and totally deserved the three points after an amazing reaction to Willian's early opener.

Mourinho criticised the referee's decision to deny his side a penalty early in the second half, when Radamel Falcao was brought down in the box by Maarten Stekelenburg – with the Colombian international booked instead for diving.

"When the result was 1-1 there was a huge penalty and once again we did not get it," Mourinho said to Sky Sports. "I say it again, the referees are afraid to give decisions for Chelsea."

But when asked in the press conference about the Portuguese's complaints, Koeman replied: "Maybe so. It would have been 5-2 then, even worse for them.

"Maybe, if they had one penalty we had two penalties, that's a decision for the referee," the Southampton boss added. "We had a difficult start to the game, but we came back and we made it 1-1 with a great goal. The difference was how we came out of the dressing room, pressed Chelsea and had fantastic movement. In my opinion, we totally deserve three points."

"We showed belief and close to half-time we were the better team. We tried to play good football, offensive football because we believe in that way of football. If we can show this against Chelsea we can show it much more."

Meanwhile, speaking with Sky Sports, Koeman backed Mourinho to overcome his current situation at Stamford Bridge after having secured just eight points from the first eight Premier League games of the campaign. "Great coaches can't win always in life," Koeman said.