Video: Alan Irvine on Chelsea 2 West Brom 0

West Brom boss Alan Irvine refused to criticise the sending-off of Claudio Yacob in Albion's 2-0 defeat at Chelsea – but hit out at the award of the opening goal.

Irvine believes Diego Costa should have been flagged offside for Chelsea's 11

-minute opener, but he admitted Yacob could have no complaints about his straight red card for a lunge on Costa.

"It was understandable that Lee Mason sent Claudio off," said Irvine.

"The rules state that if you leave the ground it can be interpreted that you are not in control of your body and are endangering an opponent.

"I couldn't see what happened at the time but I have watched it back and I now understand the decision.

"I thought the first goal was offside. Our defenders did what they were supposed to do.

"As it got shifted back onto the right foot of the crosser, they stepped up and when they did that he was offside.

"It was a great chest and finish but I'm not going to blame our players for something that was an incorrect decision."

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Irvine was full of praise for his side's defending with 10 men despite goalkeeper Ben Foster saving them on numerous occasions against a rampant Chelsea side.

"There has been an 8-0 in the Premier League this season when you're 2-0 down and down to 10 men with an hour to play at Stamford Bridge you fear the worst," he said.

"What I spoke to the players about at half-time was making sure we were together as a team throughout, regardless of what happened.

"They felt aggrieved at half-time but a couple of things and it was important to get them focused and make sure we didn't end up on the wrong end of a high score, so they deserved credit as Jose said.

"We only had 11 minutes to assess our performance with 11 men and then we went a goal down, which made our life difficult.

"We could have been heavily beaten, there's no doubt about that, because this was a hard enough place to come with 11 players.

"Jose said immediately after the game that it was a magnificent performance with 10 players and I have to agree with him on the defensive side.

"From an attacking point of view we would have wanted an awful lot more but it was a tough task already that was made an awful lot tougher."

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