The Blues defender insists there is no bad blood between two fierce rivals, despite scuffles on and off the pitch during a clash at Stamford Bridge
Antonio Rudiger has put the late fracas between Manchester United and Chelsea staff down to emotions after a frantic 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Anthony Martial's double looked to have secured the points for United, but Ross Barkley's goal in the final minute of six added on denied Jose Mourinho a win at his former stomping ground.
That sparked ugly scenes on the sidelines, with Mourinho confronting Chelsea assistant Marco Ianni for running past the United bench in celebration, with the players on the pitch soon getting involved in arguments of their own.
Mourinho, who was the subject of taunts from the home crowd, then held up three fingers to the Blues faithful after the final whistle – in reference to the three Premier League titles he won during his time as Chelsea boss.
However, Rudiger, who scored the Chelsea opener early on, insists that any bad blood ended once the Premier League game was over.
"I don't know [what happened]," Rudiger told Sky Sports. "I just saw the benches standing up, and I was like 'what, a fight?'.
"But it is emotions, it's just football. I didn't see anything on the pitch. But that's football.
"At the end of the day you shake hands. The game was still going on [when it happened]. That's emotion, at least everything has calmed down now."
Barkley's equaliser marked a second goal in as many club games for the midfielder, who is in form after a difficult start to life at Stamford Bridge last season.
"Yes, my confidence is growing," Barkley, who started twice for England during the international break, told Sky Sports.
"Our target was to get the three points, so it's disappointing, but to stick in at the end and get the draw, we showed great attitude at the end.
"I'm building momentum game by game. I'm working hard in training and the performances are coming in on game day, but we came in to get the three points."
people
200
Loool ppl crying about showing mourinho respect get the hell out of here, he has shown zero respect to Chelsea fans since his sacking. I'm glad that assistant celebrated like that, and mourinhos a reaction was even better, like he was gonna fight him anyways, sit down mate lmao. On the other hand we were poor today, after taking the lead we were very slow in possession and overconfident and that's probably to do with the media hyping us up. Thank goodness we didn't lose because we would hear the end of it from mourinho.Also hazard was quite poor today maybe due to him being smashed at every opportunity but usually he rides it but not today I guess.
Hesslertown
181
Have to say, it was sad to see Chelsea fans singing that to mourinho. None of us love him like we used to but he's absolutely right. He won us 3 league titles and if we're honest our success post mourinho still had his stamp on it. The mentality he built is only recently been altered with the likes of Terry, lampard and drogba leaving.
Malvin Dlixz Sober
149
that was passed not now