Not just the Chelsea fans, but even as neutrals, we were witness to one the most poorly officiated games in recent years in the Chelsea versus Manchester United match in the Barclays Premier League match at Stamford Bridge. Horrendous decisions in the second half lead to a highly potential game turn into in a lost cause for Chelsea. Things were looking challenging for both the sets of the fans in the early second half when the scoreline was 2-2 and the game could have literally gone in any direction. But instead it turned into one where the referee (instead of the players !) had a major role to play in the final outcome of the match.
Van Persie gave Manchester United a strong start with 2 early goals within the first 12 minutes of the game. The first one came lucky as the ball hit David Luiz to fall back in to the net, whereas the second goal was scored thanks to a brilliant cross from Valencia that left Chelsea defenders reaching for the ball. Manchester United looked very strong and swift in the early stages of the match. Chelsea on the other side were not playing up to their potential and with a defeat on their back in the mid-week against Shakthar Donetsk in Champions League, things seemed gloomy for them initially. But as the game progressed Chelsea started to find rhythm with their three innovative players Mata, Oscar and Hazard. Eventually just before the break, Juan Mata curled in an excellent free kick to give Chelsea the hope to savor something from the game. At the break the score read 1-2 for Chelsea.
As the second half started, Chelsea looked confident and were able to replicate their form from the first half. Thanks to this persistence, Chelsea scored again to level the score just as clock struck 53. From here on the game promised to be one of the classics of the season, but the referee Mark Clattenberg had other plans.
The first important decision of the game was given when the referee red-carded Chelsea defender Ivanovic for toppling Manchester forward Ashley Young. While the referee was in clear view of the scene that lead to the sending off, Mr Clattenberg did not take into account the momentum in the running direction of the Chelsea defender that was bound to topple Ashley Young. There have been many instances where there have been doubts to send off a defender who denies an attacker a clear chance on goal, but this definitely was not one of the cases, since Ivanovic had already raised his hands over, indicating that he was not at fault even before the whistle was blown. Although it was a soft decision, Chelsea were down to 10-men and had to fight the game with limited resources.
The latest trend in Premier League referees has been to punish players that have been responsible for diving. But Mr Clattenberg went a little too far in the game when he red-carded Fernando Torres accusing him of diving, when everybody in the ground could have seen that there was a a clear contact with Manchester defender Evans. When Fernando was tipped, everyone was of the impression that Evans was the offender here, but people were astonished to learn that the whistle was for Fernando and not Evans. Fernando was shocked to see a red-card coming out of the referee's pocket for this foul of his. From this point on, the entire aura of the game was lost thanks to the referee, who is actually put in place to make sure that things run smoothly during the game.
Impaired Chelsea tried to hang on but the officials were not yet done. Manchester's third goal while "clearly" an offside, but was still given to take the scoreline to 2-3. Van Persie's brilliant effort was parried away by Chelsea keeper Cech to just brush the goal post and fall directly on the path of Manchester player Rafael. When Rafael took the shot, Manchester attacker Javier Hernandez was free in front of the goal with no Chelsea player ahead of him. Now the offside rule says that there need to be a minimum of 2 opposing side players in front of the attacker to term it as an onside, which meant yet another disastrous decision. The match finally ended with a scoreline of 2-3 to Chelsea, but much of the action came from the "Men in Black" and not from someone in Red/Blue.
It is evident that the referees are under a lot of pressure to deliver in these season-defining games, but that does not imply that quality can be compromised in these situations. We have seen from the past that crucial decisions have changed the face of the match and this was the case even in this game. The officials literally killed the game with their poor decisions, although not much can be done now, the Football Association (England) has to make sure that truly qualified and experienced officials must be given charge to officiate critical games like these.
This was Chelsea's first defeat of this Barclays Premier League season but they still stand on top of the table with 22 points, while Manchester teams are both placed at 2nd and 3rd positions with 21 points each.
For their next game, Chelsea travel to Swansea and Manchester United host Arsenal on 03rd November 2012.
Article References:
1. http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/matches/2012-2013/epl.html/chelsea-vs-man-utd
Image References:
1. http://horyaalka.com/wp-content/themes/blognews/timthumb.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fhoryaalka.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2Fchelsea-vs-man-u.jpg&q=90&w=460&h=260&zc=1
2. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/10/28/article-2223674-15BB8988000005DC-1000_634x372.jpg
3. http://images.football365.com/12/10/800x600/Fernando-Torres-red-card-Chelsea-v-Manchester_2852441.jpg
