BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche has defended Ashley Barnes from Jose Mourinho's criticism - and also pointed to an incident involving Diego Costa during Saturday's draw at Chelsea.

Barnes has been heavily criticised by Chelsea boss Mourinho for his role in Matic's red card at the weekend, when the Blues midfielder reacted after being caught on the shin by the Clarets striker in the 69th minute.

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But Dyche has stressed that Barnes was in possession of the ball and only caught Matic as his leg continued its motion after attempting a pass to David Jones.

The Clarets boss insisted in a post-match press conference on Saturday that he needed to study the incident again before giving his considered reaction, and he has tonight spoken out to give his full assessment.

He pointed out that Mourinho and many others who have since criticised Barnes did not react at all at the time.

The Chelsea boss called it a 'criminal tackle' and said Barnes deserved to be banned, but the FA announced earlier today that no action would be taken against the Burnley forward.

Dyche said: "I said after the game my instant impression of it was a coming together at an unusual angle.

"Ashley Barnes tried to play the ball to Dave Jones who's behind him, the pendulum motion of his leg swings through the ball, unfortunately Matic is late arriving on the scene, not in a vicious way I must make it clear.

"He's late getting there, his leg pendulums through and hits him on the shin.

"Please everyone look at the reaction from a bunch of expert footballers on the Chelsea side - the likes of John Terry, a real warrior, Zouma, big strong boys, Ivanovic, right on top of this moment, Jose Mourinho, similar view to me, the crowd behind me, circa 15,000.

"No-one reacts, live time no-one reacts apart from Matic.

"My point to this is at live time, you've got to remember the referee has a chance at live speed, no-one reacts.

"In fact if you look at the footage when the camera pans back to Mourinho and his assistant, they're calmly talking about what they should do.

"Now after the event with hindsight, with camera views, with slow-mo, now there are statements like criminal tackle being used.

"I find that hard to adjust to when live at the moment (no-one reacts) - 15,000 people behind me, their expert staff, because they are all experts in their field including a high quality manager and most of all the players on the pitch.

"I've played football all of my life, when moments like that occur it is very rare that there is not a reaction within the stadium to that moment at live time. I need to exaggerate that point because it's important.

"After the event with replays and slow-mo of course it looks an ugly challenge, but the ball is still made contact with.

"Once you're in that pendulum of motion to play a pass I think it's very difficult to then retract your leg immediately and stop your leg going through that ball and rising.

"At live speed, these are expert people who have been in the game a long time who don't even react, don't even flinch other than Matic's response. It's a real tough one.

"Live time I find it hard to believe that all these people who have now come out, especially the manager using very strong phrases about that moment, didn't have any reaction at all at that live moment. I find that one a hard one to accept.

"Afterwards we can all slow-mo, we can all reangle and things often look different after the event when you've got all the technology that you've got.

"You can clearly see Dave Jones is dead in line with where the ball's going, Ashley Barnes tries to play through the ball to get it to Dave Jones in my opinion and on evidence of the camera angle in the reverse view."

Mourinho also claimed that Barnes should have been sent off for an aerial challenge on Branislav Ivanovic in the 30th minute.

Dyche said: "A lot was made of that, they felt that player should not be on the field of play at half time.

"My view at the time was the referee had a similar position to my angle, it looks like he's running to try to make a challenge.

"He bundles into the player it's fair to say, I certainly can't imagine that to be deemed anything more than at most a yellow card because he's slightly late and slightly high with his leg.

"Actually it's the kind of body shape that goalkeepers take when they go and receive a ball in the air to protect their own body.

"Worst case scenario in my personal opinion and having seen it, a yellow card. Certainly almost impossible in my opinion to be a red card."

Dyche has also pointed to an incident late in the game when Diego Costa appeared to kick out at Jason Shackell after the ball had gone, questioning why all the criticism has been aimed at Burnley after the match.

"It is a strange situation and we can only look at an oversight on Jose and his team’s part," Dyche said of the Costa incident.

"Just before the incident Ben Mee goes up for a header and goes over the top of someone and lands heavily on his ribs.

"He tries to get on with it, the ball then goes over the top and Jason Shackell is guiding it to Tom Heaton. Ben Mee and him are doing what defenders do, trying to guide it back to the keeper.  

"There is then quite obvious contact made by Costa on the back of Jason Shackell’s legs.

"We have to make sure that there is balance to this situation."

Dyche also questioned why Chelsea did not follow usual etiquette late in the game by giving the ball back to Burnley after they had put it out to allow the injured Ben Mee to get treatment.

"Our keeper, because Ben Mee goes down, rolls the ball out of play to allow our physio to come on and administer treatment to our player," Dyche said.

"Usually that ball comes back into the goalkeeper and then play resumes.

"On this occasion - it must have been an oversight and I can only put it down to that - Chelsea played on, threw it in and tried to attack us to try to obviously score a goal.

"I will accept it if it is an oversight but I think the protocol suggests that that is not the correct fashion because usually that then gets thrown back to the keeper.

"We'll have to view those two things as an oversight on Chelsea's part that these things didn't come to light, but to bring balance to the whole feel of the game I think they have to be recognised.

"Beyond that we must remember, madly - it seems a shame we have to talk about this - it was a fine game of football between two teams working very hard for different reasons to win a football match.

"It's a shame that these things have all got in the way of that."

On Mourinho's claim that Chelsea should have had a penalty for handball by Michael Kightly as he blocked Ivanovic's shot in the 33rd minute, Dyche said: "It's an interesting one because a lot of these things are shown retrospectively. We understand why, with the amazing technology we've got.

"Yet bizarrely the thing that wasn't picked up is it actually hits him on his thigh first, it cannons off his thigh on to his arm.

"For the referee to see that would be incredible with his own eyes, but when you see it slowed down in HD then it clearly cannons off his thigh on to his arm.

"That being said usually you would expect that to be given, just because of the spread in the box. He's not actually looking at the ball, it's coming at very high pace but usually you would think that one gets given."

On another Mourinho claim that Chelsea should have had a penalty in the 43rd minute when Costa went down under Shackell's challenge, Dyche said: "It's a tough one, I think that one that you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't for the referee.

"I think it's a close one. He's cutting in, he's a big fellow and I mentioned before the game how well I think he's doing this season despite all the furore.

"He cuts in, Jason Shackell definitely gets a mild hand on him, is that enough for him to go down? It's a real debate point, I think that's a close one.

"The first one usually gets given, but that's a real tough one for referees.

"He's off balance anyway as he cuts in, he gets a slight nudge and he goes down.

"Not remotely am I saying he goes down easily or he tries to simulate, I just mean it's a mild contact which inevitably he ends up on the floor.

"With the referee's view I think that's a tough one for him to give.

"If it goes for you you can understand it, if it goes against you, you can understand it."

Dyche also said: "It's well documented my beliefs on how we conduct ourselves.

"We generally don't question events that happen in the game - we're happy for referees to deal with those events - and we speak about the game.

"It's a shame on this occasion because I'd like to speak about the game and we got an excellent point down at a place that is incredibly tough with a fantastic manager, a fantastic group of players and a fantastic club.

"On this occasion I think it's gone a bit too far so I think we should give a balanced view with the evidence we've got and my opinion of course."