Juan Mata has sprung to the defence of Fernando Torres, insisting his Chelsea team-mate is not a dirty player despite his sending off against Tottenham.
Chelsea had to play the last 10 minutes of their 1-1 draw against Tottenham with 10 men after Torres picked up two controversial yellow cards.
Torres' second booking - for an aerial collision with Jan Vertonghen - looked harsh, but he could well have seen a straight red for his first yellow.
The Spain striker grabbed Vertonghen by the face and scratched him after becoming annoyed at the Belgian's theatrical fall.
Mata denied that Torres meant to cause Vertonghen harm in either incident, however.
"I don't know [about the red card] but Fernando is not a player who goes to hurt," Mata told Chelsea's website.
Tottenham controlled the first half of a hot-tempered 'master versus apprentice' clash between the teams of Jose Mourinho and Andre Villas-Boas.
The home side took the lead through Gylfi Sigurdsson early on, and had they took their chances, they could have been 3-0 up by the break.
But Mata's introduction brought Chelsea back in to the game.
The Spaniard has found himself out of favour under Mourinho despite being the club's player of the year last season.
Source: PA
