Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho is refusing to believe that Gary Cahill dived en route to Saturday's 2-0 win over Hull City.
Eden Hazard and Diego Costa scored to deliver three points for the Blues against Steve Bruce's Tigers but the Hull boss fumed at referee Chris Foy's failure to show Cahill a second yellow card for diving.
With Chelsea one goal ahead, the England centre-back appeared to go to ground under very little contact in the Hull box but Foy awarded only a goal kick.
Mourinho, while admitting that he had not watched a replay, told reporters. "I don't believe Cahill [could have] dived. If you tell I'm wrong because he dived, something happened.
"They block his run, or a touch, or he lost his balance but that big, honest guy? I don't believe it."
Bruce, however, fumed to media at Stamford Bridge that the integrity of the game was being brought into question by actions of players such as Cahill and compared the defender's diving to ballet.
"I've just been asked by radio and TV whether Cahill should have gone and the simple answer is yes," Bruce said after the game. "Especially after the referee had already booked two people for simulation.
"If it's Hazard or Oscar or Willian, they run at that pace that the smallest connection can bring them over but this is England's centre-half, by the way, and for me it could have been a red card for his first challenge on [Sone Aluko]. It's reckless and dangerous.
"So when you come you expect the referee to do the job and, consequently Tom Huddlestone, who is the most laid-back, even he, borne out of frustration of the decisions that have gone against him, has produced a horror challenge which deserved a red card.
"The reason why people enjoy the Premier League, for me, is the honesty of it and the integrity of it and we must stop this horrible simulation which unfortunately has crept in.
"When you watch it over, it's like something out of Swan Lake. It's that blatant, it's that obvious, what he's trying, and yet there's some sort of excuse that they'll find for him."
Away from the pitch, Mourinho struggles to understand how he has only won three Premier League manager of the month awards during his time in the English top flight.
The Blues boss has won two Premier League titles in his four full seasons at Stamford Bridge but the likes of Joe Kinnear and Carlo Ancelotti, who spent only two years with the Blues, have won the prize more often than him.
Alan Pardew earned his third award after leading Newcastle to three wins and a defeat in November, with Mourinho guiding his side to three wins and a draw over the same period.
"I promise what I tell you is true: I don't care," Mourinho added. "I promise you that is true.
"But there is something that is not right because in four years of Premier League [management], I have won manager of the month twice [sic] so, for sure, they don't like me. But I promise you, I don't care really. I just want my team to win."
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