I am sure that there are several Chelsea fans, including myself who feel pretty hard done by with the refereeing after Sunday's Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool. We need some answers, and we should have had them yesterday.
Chelsea were held to a 0-0 draw (AET) and eventually lost in a round of superb penalties which saw Kepa eventually miss after even the goalkeepers were forced to step up.
After a Premier League weekend where VAR was called into question for Manchester City's clash against Everton, there was an expectation for the refereeing team to get it right for the final just 24 hours later. Unfortunately, on both ends, the decisions felt left a bitter taste in the mouth.
Darren England and Simon Bennet both sat in the VAR room and decided that Liverpool deserved to have 11 men on the pitch. They also made a confident decision that it was best for Romelu Lukaku's goal to be chalked off. After reviewing the evidence, I just can not wrap my head around it.
Naby Keita serious foul play on Trevoh Chalobah.
It was clear as day, in my opinion at least, that Liverpool’s Naby Keita should have been sent off. I’m actually quite confused as to how the referee, Stuart Atwell and his VAR team thought otherwise.
Keita misses the ball completely and endangers Trevoh Chalobah. Plain and simple.
As a fan, it is sad that I was able to decipher what constituted a red card in real-time and the VAR officials did not. The rules are clear as stated on the FA website. It was serious foul play.
SERIOUS FOUL PLAY - A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play.
Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.
The 22-year-old defender screamed agony as he went down. The indication that he needed stitches was not enough for Atwell to consider checking the foul for himself. It was an unfortunate decision that could have probably ended the tie in normal time in Chelsea's favour.
People could call it a 50/50 challenge, but for me, it seems as though Keita is late, hence the connection with Chalobah's thigh. Serious foul play is not always about intent, it focuses on the action and in this case, the action was illegal.
Chaobah himself was in disbelief.
Romelu Lukaku flagged offside
The offside rule seems to be a point of discussion yet again this season, despite the relaxation of the rules.
Romelu Lukaku scored in the first half of extra time. It was a beautiful finish from the Belgian and there wasn’t a slight of doubt amongst the fans in the stadium. It was the third offside call against the Blues and after celebrating with all of their strength, the fans were silenced as the screen read: “VAR CHECKING OFFSIDE GOAL”.
It felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest. There was absolutely no way he was offside. I looked at my phone to watch the replay whilst in the stands just to be sure. There was no reasonable doubt to call him offside. So when it was given, there was a round of deafening boos and disbelief within the stands.
Thomas Tuchel questioned the decision post-match and he was not so pleased. He said: “It's a bit of a weird line where it is drawn and then to make the decision it's offside."
The Chelsea boss was very careful with his words but the fans did not offer the referee’s the same grace. They took to social media asking “how on Earth is Lukaku offside?”
I shared the same sentiment.
As far as I am aware, the line was drawn for the Belgian’s arm. However, to my knowledge, you cannot actually score a goal with the arm but it seems the offside rule has taken a downhill trajectory since the introduction of technology.
It’s quite clear that I am reasonably unhappy with the way the match panned out. In fact, I’m quite furious having replayed the decisions. Jose Mourinho once proclaimed that the world of football is against Chelsea, and now I think he may have been on to something.
Okay, slight exaggeration there.
All we ask for is consistency and better decision-making with VAR. That’s what it was introduced for but time after time a fanbase is left unsatisfied. You cannot please everybody, but you can keep consistency.
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