Jose Mourinho claimed Arsenal could have ended the game with eight men as Chelsea cruised to a 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge against their London rivals.
The Blues continued their impressive unbeaten run as they eased their way to their sixth Premier League win in seven.
Eden Hazard converted a first-half penalty before Diego Costa finished Arsenal off after a familiar combination with ex-Gunner Cesc Fabregas.
Mourinho praised the performance of the officials, but felt that Arsenal were fortunate to see out the game with 11 men on the field.
The Chelsea boss said: “Arsenal could have finished with eight men, because it is a red card for Koscielny, it is a double yellow card for Chambers in the first half, and cleary it was a red card for Welbeck.
“But I accept that the Welbeck red card was not given – the game was over and Welbeck is a good kid and is not aggressive.
“I think the referee, from a technical point of view, had a fantastic performance in a difficult, technical, fast match with lots of runs behind – also the linesmen had a difficult game and I think they did a fantastic job.”
Mourinho also played down an incident which saw he and Arsene Wenger come to blows.
Wenger felt aggrieved after Chelsea centre-back Gary Cahill was only shown a yellow card for a perceived reckless challenge on Chilean Alexis Sanchez, but Mourinho dismissed the affair.
“For me, it is over,” added Mourinho.
“But the technical area is very clear – I have mine, he has his and he cannot come to mine, especially to put pressure on the referee to give a red card to my player.
“So I just told him ‘leave my technical area and don’t come back please’.”
