CHELSEA goalkeeper Petr Cech has bucked the Premier League trend by praising Luis Suarez for his sportsmanship.

Suarez has been the subject of fierce criticism this season and labelled a cheat by the likes of Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny.

It has threatened to overshadow his achievements on the pitch for Liverpool, with his goal at Chelsea moving him alongside Robin van Persie at the top of the Premier League scoring charts with 11 strikes.

But Cech said: We should give credit to him (Suarez) because when we had a one v one (in the second half) he didnt try to cheat and jump and dive.

I got a clear touch to the ball and kicked it on to him. It was a fair thing for him to do.

Cech, though, echoed the thoughts of his manager Roberto di Matteo by claiming Suarez was guilty of a slight push on Ramires before heading in Liverpools equaliser.

Suarez is a clever player and he did it in a moment when none of the referees could have seen it. It is always difficult because in the box you have so many incidents every time that you can have fouls and penalties at almost every corner and every free-kick.

Overall, I dont know how much of a push there was. By that time we should have been 3-0 up and we shouldnt have to discuss whether or not there was some incident for the goal.

Cech acknowledges Suarez is on fire at moment, with the Uruguayan have netted in his last four games.

You know he is dangerous in the box, said Cech. He can feel the situations and hes a goalscorer. Hes always in the right place to tap the ball in and you have to aware of this.

This is a gift, not everybody has that but it seems that any ball that goes into the box, hes in the right place.

Its a great skill to have and we knew he would be a dangerous player. Hes on fire, scoring goals. Unfortunately he had chance to score again.