Mourinho’s celebrations of his first trophy in English football were yesterday marred by the aftermath of being sent from the touchline on the advice of a police officer after Chelsea’s late equaliser.

The Blues boss confirmed the circumstances of his dismissal and expressed his regret at any possible misjudgement over his misguided gesture of putting his fingers to his lips in front of thousands of frustrated Liverpool fans.

“The police told the fourth official ‘Mr Mourinho must go’ – and if I made a mistake I apologise,” he said.

“I have a lot of respect for fans of every team in the country, in the world, and try to show that.”

Yet despite insisting he was telling his critics rather than supporters to keep quiet – even though the media were on the other side of the ground - Mourinho still faces a probable FA misconduct charge.

Referee Steve Bennett confirmed he was including details of the incident in his official match report, which was set to be considered by the FA today.

The chances are that Mourinho, who is already charged with accusing Manchester United players of “cheating” in their Carling Cup semi-final, will have to defend himself again.

“This is a special situation for me but if I made a mistake and did something that I cannot do in English football, then I have to adapt and understand where I am,” he insisted.

“I have a lot of respect for Liverpool fans. What I did, the sign of silence - ‘shut your mouth’ – was not for them. It was for the English press.”

That begged the question of why Mourinho was allowing the criticism to get to him, even in triumph as Didier Drogba and Mateja Kezman’s extra-time goals saw off Liverpool.

His answer seemed to give hope to Alex Ferguson that he could yet unsettle the Chelsea boss as he closes in on Chelsea’s title lead.

Mourinho declared: “It is not about me, it is about us. And you cannot put pressure on my group – no chance. There is another thing you forgot. We have not lost [our rearranged game] against West Brom. If we beat them, the gap would be nine points again.”

There is nothing like encouraging a siege mentality within a squad to refocus players, although Chelsea should hardly require any extra motivation.

After all, the character which they showed in coming from behind against Liverpool yesterday was surely proof enough of their resilience after back-to-back defeats by Newcastle and Barcelona.

The Blues fell behind after just 45 seconds as John Arne Riise was left unmarked to volley Fernando Morientes’ deep cross past Petr Cech.

However, when Eidur Gudjohnsen replaced the ineffective Jiri Jarosik at half-time, they finally started to discover some impetus.

Mourinho’s side were initially denied by keeper Jerzy Dudek, who foiled Drogba, Gudjohnsen and William Gallas with a string of fine saves.

They also needed Cech to be at his sharpest to deny Dietmar Hamann on the counter-attack, while Gerrard came within inches of putting his side 2-0 ahead.

However, just minutes after that costly miss, Chelsea were level as Gerrard - who came so close to moving to Stamford Bridge last summer – headed a free-kick into his own net.

From then on, even with Mourinho banished from the touchline, there was only one likely winner.

Dudek frustrated Damien Duff, while Drogba hit the post, before the Ivory Coast international finally prodded the ball home after Sami Hyypia failed to intercept a long throw by Glen Johnson.

Dudek then failed to hold Gudjohnsen’s fierce cross and Kezman prodded the ball over the line from close range.

Although Liverpool rallied, with Antonio Nunez just beating Cech to a header, Chelsea had won – and Mourinho was left with yet another trophy but further questions over his conduct.

He concluded: “Someone asked me if I wanted to be loved by the football world or to win trophies.

“I said that I just want to win trophies. I don’t want to be in love with you.

“You can say what you want to about me – it does not put pressure on me. The day the Chelsea fans or the Chelsea board want me to go then I will go the next morning. So you cannot put pressure on me – no way. I have trophies; I have money; I can live without my job at Chelsea. My life will carry on.”