I think Ashley acted in mature manner, says Grant

The Chelsea manager could have criticised the contempt his players showed referee Mike Riley at Tottenham after Ashley Cole's shocking tackle on Alan Hutton and promised it would never happen again.

Instead, Grant accused the FA of victimising Chelsea. Perhaps most astonishingly, he claimed Cole should be applauded for apologising.

'I give great credit to Ashley,' said Grant. 'He behaved like a mature guy. He saw he did something wrong and he apologised.

'No-one pushed him to apologise. He took responsibility. We need to give him a lot of credit for this.'

There is a sense at Chelsea that everyone is against them — referees, football's authorities and, of course, the media.

Grant added: 'There have been worse tackles than this. There is a player at Arsenal, who I will not name, who tackled our captain. He had to go to hospital and was out for a few weeks. He did not apologise. We are still waiting for that.'

That was a reference to Emmanuel Eboue's tackle on John Terry back in December. But this sort of response has become a Chelsea trademark since the days of Jose Mourinho.

When fined for the fifth time in two years for failing to control their players at Derby this season, the club compiled a DVD featuring examples of other teams getting away with similar antics.

Grant is still irritated by an incident from his first match at the helm when he is convinced the reaction of Manchester United's players to a challenge by John Mikel Obi on Patrice Evra persuaded referee Mike Dean to show a red card.

But it was Chelsea who were forced to pay a £30,000 fine to the FA for their players' behaviour in response to Obi's sending-off.

'I think this is unfair from the FA,' said Grant. 'I don't know why. Maybe something happened in the past.

'If there is a big, clear rule, it will be better for everybody. I agree it would be good if only the captains were allowed to talk to the referee.'

The FA are trialling this idea in amateur football as part of their RESPECT project. What a gesture it would be for Chelsea to impose a similar rule on their players to prove they are serious about the concept.

But Grant said: 'I will not tell my players they can only do this if they can say: ''Why can the other teams if we cannot?'' Sometimes it affects the referee.

'It is human nature to say something when you feel it's not the right decision. I don't think it's so wrong.

'Even the refs don't pay that much attention to it. Sometimes it can be a tactic but we haven't done that.'

Mark Clattenburg is the referee at Stamford Bridge tomorrow, but Grant is also under pressure to overhaul Arsenal in the title race and banish irritating statistics.

Mourinho did not lose to Arsene Wenger in eight attempts but Grant was beaten in his first game against the Gunners boss in December.

It is 19 years since the Blues went through a season without a win against Manchester United, Arsenal or Liverpool and they will have to extend that run if they are to become champions.

After losing the Carling Cup final to Tottenham and then dropping points to them on Wednesday, Grant faced accusations of failing in big games.

He responded with his usual dry wit, to point out he lost a small one, too, at Barnsley.

'At Tottenham one team lose there by five (Arsenal) and another equalised in the last minute (United). But when you play fantastic football, score four goals from open play and don't win, you don't feel good about this.'

After conceding three at Spurs from set-pieces, Grant will watch Petr Cech train today before deciding whether he is ready to return. That's the kind of boost he and Chelsea need.