Jose Mourinho praised "aggressive, clean player" Marcos Rojo after being asked about the defender's two-footed challenge on Wilfried Zaha in Wednesday's Premier League clash.
Manchester United defender Rojo appeared fortunate to escape with just a yellow card after he jumped into a challenge on the Crystal Palace winger.
Referee Craig Pawson decided a yellow card was ample punishment, with Zaha fortunately jumping out of the way to avoid the full impact of the tackle.
And Mourinho played down suggestions it was an awful foul from Rojo, initially refusing to discuss the incident before insisting the Argentine is a "clean" player who is in the form of his life.
He told BT Sport: "Rojo's playing phenomenal, Jones is playing phenomenal. I didn't discuss Danny Rose's tackle. I didn't discuss David Luiz's tackle. I'm not going to discuss Marcos Rojo's tackle.
[You won't speak to him personally to tell him to calm down?] "He is an aggressive, clean player playing probably the best football of his career."
Mourinho is also unsure over the extent of Eric Bailly's injury after the defender had to leave the field early in the second half with a knee injury.
He added: "We don't know [how bad it is]. It's not the same knee. It's the other one. It's the left knee. He's not coming back to a previous injury.
"Of course he has a problem. He showed amazing character to try and try and try until his limit."