London, Dec.1 : Chelsea boss Phil Scolari has demanded an apology from match referee Mike Dean, saying the latter cost his side a crucial victory against Arsenal. The Chelsea boss blamed Dean and his assistant Simon Beck for failing to call Arsenal's Robin Van Persie offside before that team had scored an equaliser.

Van Persie scored the winner three minutes later to condemn Chelsea to their second home defeat of the season.

Big Phil fumed: "Never before at Chelsea have I said anything about the referee. But today is different. I don't want the referee to do something different, only for him to look at the TV, see he was wrong and say sorry. Tell the assessor to ask the referee to do both sides, not one side."

"They made a mistake. They're not bad, I understand that. I don't want three points, I just want 'sorry' because they made a mistake," the Sun quoted him, as saying further.

Arsenal's shock victory means a win for Liverpool against West Ham at Anfield this evening will put Rafa Benitez's side three points clear at the top of the Premier League.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger claimed the result keeps his side in the title hunt and praised former skipper William Gallas for the way he has responded to the problems of the last two weeks.

ANI