Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has insisted that wing-back Victor Moses did not deliberately intend to con the referee when diving inside the box during the FA Cup final.
The Nigeria international was shown a second yellow card by Anthony Taylor with the game at 1-0 after going down under no contact from closest opponent Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Conte has attempted to defend Moses, who was booked 10 minutes earlier for a foul on Danny Welbeck, by claiming that his action was likely down to fatigue following a gruelling season.
"I don't know for sure but there is a lot of attention in this moment," The Independent quotes him as saying. "Sometimes I think it could be tiredness and I don't think - and I repeat - if my player dived he did it with the real intention to do this.
"We are at the end of the season and a lot of players are tired and then there is a lot of pressure.
"For sure it is not a good situation to dive, it is true. But I repeat Moses is an honest player and if there was this situation he was tired and he didn't want to cheat the referee."
The 10 men of Chelsea battled back to level things up at Wembley, only for Aaron Ramsey to swoop in and score the winner 11 minutes from time.
Daniel Lewis
