Chelsea 2-3 Mark Clattenburg

Chelsea 2-3 Mark Clattenburg

Injustice. That’s the word I’ll think of when I look back at this game later on in the season, or in years down the road if this ends up costing us a Championship. From start to finish, the referee just didn’t want to give Chelsea anything, with United getting all of the luck in this game, in what is being said is the worst refereeing display in Premier League history.

Chelsea didn’t start well at all, and conceded 2 quick goals, but apart from that United were very limited going forward in the first 20 minutes. 2 shots and 2 goals, how more lucky can you get when one of them is an own goal too! Eventually we got back into the game, with a beautiful free-kick from Juan Mata, who really is in the form of his life. From then on it was all Chelsea, and we really had United on the ropes. Torres had a header saved which he probably should have scored, and Mata had a one on one with De Gea, which he was so unlucky not to score. Going back to luck, a Mikel cross came into the United box, bouncing off a United defender and hitting the post. If that was a Chelsea defender, it probably would have gone in.

At half time I felt confident that at least a draw was possible, after some really positive play before the break. We came out in the second half just as we had finished the first, and United looked rattled. They had been parking the bus since the 20th minute, and couldn’t deal with our front 4. Then the equaliser came, from a header from Ramires which really made me think that this United side were there for the taking. They simply couldn’t deal with us, and had no answers to what we were throwing at them. Then, the game was turned on its head.

Van Persie putting a through ball in for Young, who went down like a sack of potatoes after a ‘challenge’ from Ivanovic, although replays show that it was inconclusive to say the least. You shouldn’t be surprised though, as Young has been diving his whole career and the referee couldn’t wait to send Ivanovic. This put us down to 10 men, which would be so hard against any side, but even more so against a jammy United. But, we still looked dangerous going forward, with United clearly just looking to hit us on the break. Then, the referee made an almighty cock-up.

Torres, nutmegs Evans and is through on goal, the crowd are screaming for Evans to go, and what does he do? He sends off Torres for diving! What an absolute joke. Why, when he was through on goal, would Torres dive? If anything, there was more contact in this, than there was for the Ivanovic sending off on Young. The referee had ruined the game at this point, and incensed the crowd with these awful decisions, that even a rookie referee would struggle to get wrong. He just let the occasion get to him, and wanted the whole show to be about him. An absolute farce.

Inevitably United got their 3rd and winning goal, but guess what? Offside! Not even close either, it was so close to see. How the linesman can not see it is beyond me. That decision could have massive consequences this season, so how can he give it when its so blatant? Then to make matters worse, Hernandez goes over to the Chelsea fans and starts celebrating in front of them, provoking the whole of the Matthew Harding Lower. Now, if that was a Chelsea player doing that to the United away supporters, he would have got a yellow card no doubt. Then Evra starts with the calm down gesture, when really he should have moved the players away. Such a farce. Such an injustice.

Believe it or not, with 9 men we still caused United problems, but it was never gonna be our day when we were playing against 12 men from the start. When I got on twitter after the game, wasn’t surprised to see some United ‘fans’ weren’t exactly being graceful in defeat. These are fans who never go to games I bet, what right do they have to call themselves ‘fans’! Yet they started churning out all this rubbish about how it was justice for Drogba’s goal at Old Trafford in 2010. They mention that, but yet they fail to mention that Macheda’s goal was a handball, therefore if you cancel them both out Chelsea still win the game 1-0 and still win the title. Other injustices include Ramires being hacked down in the box in the Champions League 2 years ago when he was one on one, United’s 2 dodgy penalties at Stamford Bridge last season and the offside Smalling goal at Old Trafford last season. If you’re gonna talk about ‘justice’ for that incident, I’m sure you’ll remember these incidents United fans? Oh of course not, selective memory loss I guess!

Anyway, all I can say is that I was proud of the players yesterday, who really gave their all, and it was always going to be impossible to win this game when we were playing 12 men. But this United side isn’t good at all. Take Van Persie out of the team and they’re very average. I saw enough yesterday when we had 10 and 9 men to tell me that this team is going to challenge for the title this year, and will do so playing some lovely football too. So chin up Chelsea fans. Yes we were extremely hard done by, and if United EVER say they never get decisions or feel an injustice in a game, be sure to point them to this game. We’ll do them at Old Trafford, don’t you worry! Come on you blues!

KTBFFH

Will Talbut @WSTalbs

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