One of the poorest refereeing displays I've seen. Very keen to brandish cards. Willian challenge is a penalty which VAR should have picked up. As well as michy wrongly offside in 1st half

That was tough watching last night. At one point we looked like we didn't want to score. The reff had a shocker, he went to VAR for a corner and a throw but not for the penalty shouts? for me Morata was a pen, the guy puts his arms on him and pulls him back, morata's reaction is irrelevant, many ex-refs have said you have to go down now to make up the ref's mind. Staying on you're feet doesn't pay!

But, we shouldn't be relying on the reff, it wasn't quite barcelona level, and you can say that out of the two keepers Willy, made the better saves in 90 mins. Always been a big fan of willian but he played with such contempt last night and got punished for his lack of respect, didn't pass the ball, tried to go round everyone, slowed the game down and wasted movement of others.  Baka and drinkwater in the middle offer nothing offensively, the former is so frustrating because he looks like he has all the tools but won't use them! Michy is pretty much done but i have no idea who's going to back morata up, can't see the carrol deal happening and prefer it didn't to be honest. 

 

Luiz demonstrated how good Christensen is, was caught out of position a few times and guilty of over playing, that said he was one of the only ones trying to inject some energy in to the game! I would actually play him center mid going forwards for the rest of the season 

Well I thought we did ok considering the blatant bias of the ref(s)

9 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

If one of our defenders grabbed hold of the striker, you would be one of the first to say that our defender was stupid to pull the opposition player.

Not if it was like that one. Putting a hand on some isnt a foul and thats all he did, then Morata threw himself to the floor. 

14 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Not if it was like that one. Putting a hand on some isnt a foul and thats all he did, then Morata threw himself to the floor. 

Since when is grabbing someone with your arm to stop them from outrunning you is not a foul?

Edited January 18, 20188 yr by abramovich

I can't argue against the blue tinted glasses. But i would have been furious if that was fiven against us. 

Edited January 18, 20188 yr by Zeta

32 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

The reasoning seems to be that, even though it's not legal to grab someone as they go past you, it was Morata's fault for going to ground. If he'd stayed on his feet he might have got a pen, but was booked for exaggerating the contact. 

When was the last time you saw a yellow brandished after a player whinged about being booked? If that was applied consistently you'd see that every game. 

The Willian decision was such a farce there's nothing more to say. Apart from the fact that the video ref was Mike Jones, who is up there with Anthony Taylor as probably the worst ref on the circuit. How can a ref look at that, see a player being wrongly booked for diving, see a team denied a clear pen, and tell the ref he  hasn't made a clear and obvious mistake?

 

I see your point but as Barak has already mentioned, you won't get a call unless you fall. And when you do in front of an idiot, you'll even get punished for playacting. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Do you honestly think that ref would have called for penalty in that very incident if Morata stayed on his feet? In his mind it wasn't even a foul, hence a yellow for "diving". He's an incompetent fool posing as a referee.

Everyone saying Bakayoko had a good game but his passing was simple. It was almost as if he wanted remain anonymous in that game. He was yet again at fault in our penalty area. The ball came over and he completely missed the header and the guy he was marking, headed it and it led to them hitting the post. He's still a liability. A very lazy player.

Agree he missed a header yet Azpi messed up with Caballero and Luiz went AWOL for the goal.

The majority of Bakayoko's passing was simple yet he made himself available the majority of the time by making angles for our chaps on the ball. He made the odd long pass one notable one should have given Bats a chance yet he decided to turn his back on it

He made the odd run which could on another day have opened up the game.

For me it suggests he deserves another season before he is discarded.

Edited January 18, 20188 yr by Strider6003

Bit of a cracker in the end even if the ref was as bad as they come. I don't know if it's to do with our reputation preceding us. Pedro, who should have been subbed, didn't do us any favours. The silver lining was thst it put our backs up against the wall and did we stick those penalties away! I hope the team can bottle that fighting spirit again.

Thought Bakayoko had his best game in a while. I like the pairing with Drinkwater even if it isn't our strongest midfield. BTW imagine if Bakayoko had made the mistake Drinkwater made? We would have at least a 1000 more replies to his topic.

Luis was mostly good and as someone said, injected some life into proceedings. Kenedy was also better than I've seen him before and should allow Alonso the odd breather although he's also a candidate for Bakayoko treatment if he makes mistakes.

Shouldn't forget though that this was Norwich, who played very well and we are not out of the woods by a long shot.

19 minutes ago, EmeraldBlue said:

Bit of a cracker in the end even if the ref was as bad as they come. I don't know if it's to do with our reputation preceding us. Pedro, who should have been subbed, didn't do us any favours. The silver lining was thst it put our backs up against the wall and did we stick those penalties away! I hope the team can bottle that fighting spirit again.

Thought Bakayoko had his best game in a while. I like the pairing with Drinkwater even if it isn't our strongest midfield. BTW imagine if Bakayoko had made the mistake Drinkwater made? We would have at least a 1000 more replies to his topic.

Luis was mostly good and as someone said, injected some life into proceedings. Kenedy was also better than I've seen him before and should allow Alonso the odd breather although he's also a candidate for Bakayoko treatment if he makes mistakes.

Shouldn't forget though that this was Norwich, who played very well and we are not out of the woods by a long shot.

 

Have to say, I don't like that pairing. Thought at times last night they were out played and that's by a Norwich team who aren't even doing that well in the Championship. It was concerning that watching that game last night, it looked like a match between two struggling Championship sides - until Kante and Hazard came on.

Pedro.. Shameful and embarrassing dive, I wouldn't complain if a panel gave him a 3 match ban, hate to see it and want rid of it from the game.
Willian.. WTF !!! Even if the idiot of a ref thinks it's not a pen he should surely have consulted VAR before issuing a booking, Isn't that the whole point of the poxy thing to stop errors and help the ref ??
Morata.. Slight touch on the back and he goes down like he's been shot, which he embarrassingly and whingingly  does non-stop throughout the game incidentally , he really needs to cut it out and stand strong. He's not in Spain now where as soon as player goes down a foul is given.
THE REF.. Well, If ever there was a 'I don't care how big a team you are I'll show you who's boss' display that was it. It was the perfect example of a 2nd tier ref getting carried away in the moment. Utterly useless tosser.
Us in general.. I thought we played as we have in the last few games, slow, lacking in any drive and showing no effort to put teams under pressure until it's too late. We were lucky last night despite the ref.
But...  We're through so....  f**k them all & up the Chels !

17 hours ago, Slojo said:

Why does the Norwich manager look like an axe murderer? 

I said he was the stereotypical east European drugs dealer/prostitute pimp in an episode of any British crime drama!

13 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

If one of our defenders grabbed hold of the striker, you would be one of the first to say that our defender was stupid to pull the opposition player.

I disagree, there's nothing in the rules to say you can't make physical contact the way the Norwich defender did last night, it would only have been an offence if he actually pulled him back and I don't think he did. Morata tried to deceive the referee and should have played on imho. Yellow for deception, yellow for dissent.

Edited January 18, 20188 yr by the special one

I disagree, there's nothing in the rules to say you can't make physical contact the way the Norwich defender did last night, it would only have been an offence if he actually pulled him back and I don't think he did. Morata tried to deceive the referee and should have played on imho. Yellow for deception, yellow for dissent.

Don't agree. He didn't touch him - he was holding on to him. Maybe it's not a penalty but the booking was absolutely wrong. Why would Morata go down when he was in on goal? His overreaction is because he thinks he was fouled.

45 minutes ago, the special one said:

I disagree, there's nothing in the rules to say you can't make physical contact the way the Norwich defender did last night, it would only have been an offence if he actually pulled him back and I don't think he did. Morata tried to deceive the referee and should have played on imho. Yellow for deception, yellow for dissent.

If he doesn't grab hold of Morata then Morata out paces him, the only reason why the defender could keep up with Morata is because he was holding onto him. He's obstructing Morata. If it's the other way around and it was Morata gabbing hold of the defender, the ref wouldn't hesitate to blow for a foul, the same thing if it happened outside of the area too.

Maybe a soft penalty in England, but grabbing a player by the neck or collar of the shirt and holding the arm a bit back is at least destabilising when the player is running at a pace. I'm not saying it is a clear penalty, but certainly it is no diving because he was destabilised, so the ref is wrong showing the yellow card.

5 hours ago, Zeta said:

Not if it was like that one. Putting a hand on some isnt a foul and thats all he did, then Morata threw himself to the floor. 

Aye Zeta. We can just change the name to handball or rugby whilst we are on the matter.

I'm disappointed with the views of many on here. Morata is a weakling I agree but let's not condone illegality according to the laws of the game and compensate a poor ref decision by blaming our own players.

4 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

If he doesn't grab hold of Morata then Morata out paces him, the only reason why the defender could keep up with Morata is because he was holding onto him. He's obstructing Morata. If it's the other way around and it was Morata gabbing hold of the defender, the ref wouldn't hesitate to blow for a foul, the same thing if it happened outside of the area too.

Fair point, I was a defender so tend to see it from the other side - I still think it was a yellow because Morata tried to influence the referee's decision but as you say it was obstruction, or at very least attempted obstruction. If Morata had just played to the whistle he may got the decision, had a crossing opportunity, or we get the corner.

1 hour ago, the special one said:

I disagree, there's nothing in the rules to say you can't make physical contact the way the Norwich defender did last night, it would only have been an offence if he actually pulled him back and I don't think he did. Morata tried to deceive the referee and should have played on imho. Yellow for deception, yellow for dissent.

FA Rules and Regulations, Law 12:

1. A foul is to be awarded if the opponent is held with the arms or body.

2. Where a player commits an offence against an opponent and didn’t attempt to play the ball (e.g. holding, pulling, pushing) the offending player must be cautioned

Yeah but you're forgetting FA Rules and Regulations, Law 12: Part b

1. Any of the above classed as a foul can be ignored when the offence is on a player registered with Chelsea FC.

18 minutes ago, Luca Vialli said:

Yeah but you're forgetting FA Rules and Regulations, Law 12: Part b

1. Any of the above classed as a foul can be ignored when the offence is on a player registered with Chelsea FC.

In the unofficial handbook for refs and assistants.

So lets all blame the poor reffing  after all t wwas the refs fault that the players cant pass the ball forward  we spend so much tme passing the ball along the back line  with an occasional  cross field pass the forwards fall asleep , we have become boring and predictable under Conte he is so defensive minded  its time he packed his bags  ffs we are chelsea its time to attack teams stop the defend and hope Hassard or wlliian can produce some piece of magic the sit back and hope the opposition dont score , the  ts Conte who is the problem , if any of our players does anythng except follow orders he is dropped from the team and the orders are take no risks simple passes only

1 hour ago, dellaw said:

So lets all blame the poor reffing  after all t wwas the refs fault that the players cant pass the ball forward  

Absolutely no one is doing that, not a single person. Good post though.

Enough Said!!!