Luiz Felipe Scolari accused Mike Dean, the referee, of “killing” his Chelsea team last night and hinted at a conspiracy to keep Arsenal in the Barclays Premier League title race.

Two goals in the space of three second-half minutes from Robin van Persie gave Arsenal a 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge to take them up to fourth, seven points behind Chelsea, who will be knocked off the top if Liverpool gain a point at home to West Ham United this evening, and in a rant reminiscent of some of José Mourinho’s finest outbursts, Scolari demanded an apology from Dean after his assistant failed to spot that Van Persie was offside before scoring his first goal.

The Chelsea manager also criticised the referee for incorrectly blowing up when Salomon Kalou was through on goal in the fifth minute. The Brazilian even went as far as to suggest that darker forces were at work, although he appeared to backtrack later by saying that the assistant referee had made two honest mistakes.

“All the people here know that all season I’ve never said anything against the referee, but today it’s different,” Scolari said. “I don’t want the referee to make something different, but only for him to look in the television and see it was wrong and say sorry.

“I don’t want three points, I just want ‘sorry’ because they made a mistake. They are not God. In the first half they make the same mistake against us. In the second half there was another big mistake against us. It’s difficult to play and, after this, my team lost their concentration and didn’t play well. I want to hear some words from the referee tomorrow and hear that it was offside. Offside killed my team.

“If it’s possible to understand, if we win we’d have been 13 points ahead of them and the title would have been finished for them. OK? In the same play in the first half he gave Kalou offside. And the same area, but one metre in front — more than one metre in front — Van Persie’s not offside. What do you think I need to think?”

Asked if he thought that the errors were intentional, Scolari replied: “Maybe. Two times the same mistake? And tomorrow what’s happened? Nothing. I want the FA and the referee to look and say they were wrong because I am wrong if I put the wrong players on.”

Scolari has avoided controversy during the first six months of his reign at Stamford Bridge, with yesterday’s outburst the first sign that he is feeling the pressure. After going 4½ years without defeat in a home Premier League match, Chelsea have lost two of their past four.

Arsène Wenger claimed that the victory puts his side back in the title race. “I believe it gives us the belief that we can come back,” the Arsenal manager said. “It is a massive win for us. We had just lost two games unexpectedly and to lose today would have put us 13 points adrift of Chelsea. That would have been too much.”

Scolari conceded that the biggest winner of the day was Sir Alex Ferguson, who watched Manchester United close the gap on Chelsea to five points with a game in hand courtesy of a 1-0 win over Manchester City in which Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off. “Manchester United are a very big team, a good squad and, sure, United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool play for first position,” Scolari said. “The games in the final few weeks will decide who is first in the Premier League.”