Man Utd 0-1 Chelsea: Howard Webb Bites Back!
FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT
By Since66
May 6 2013
After the game I received a text simply saying ‘Howard Webb has lost his end of season bonus.’ For every onlooker and pundit it was too easy to jump on the anti-Luiz bandwagon, although it did concern me he was going to get into serious trouble after his volcanic explosion over a throw-in which earned him a yellow card three minutes earlier, when he and Rafael clashed in the corner at the Stretford End.
Luiz played his elbow across Rafael’s chest twice (no flag from Assistant Sian Massey, especially as she had front row seats), Rafael kicks out.
Bang. Foul. Flag up. Red Card. Webb redeems Clattenburg. End of story.
Chelsea closed out the game with a 1-0 victory to move back into Champions League qualification.
Again end of story.
Utd were poor. Chelsea were no better.
The game was like an end of season kickabout, a testimonial if you like, a poor advert for the Premier League.
It’s funny how SAF in his post-match rhetoric made no mention of Sian Massey’s contribution to the Rafael sending off.
He said, “He retaliates but Luiz quite clearly elbows him twice then rolls about like a dying swan and that convinces the referee. He was smiling. It’s bad. What kind of professional is that?
“The ref has been bought by the fact Luiz is rolling about. When a player retaliates he gets punished the most. Luiz rolled about. You see that with European, foreign and South American players. Rafael was rash, he’s young and should know better but retaliation never works. I wouldn’t say it was violent conduct.”
SAF conceded that the challenge on Rooney by Ramires leading up to Mata’s winner wasn’t a foul.
He said, “I don’t think it was a foul, but we weren’t getting anything from the referee anyway. The referee’s decisions went against us.”
You gotta love Old Red Nose.
He criticises all of the bad decisions that go against him and his team, but can never remember those that went in his favour.
Man Utd: Lindegaard, Rafael, Evans, Vidic (c), Evra, Anderson (Rooney 68), Jones, Cleverley (Buttner 68), Valencia (Hernandez 89), Van Persie, Giggs.
Booked: Vidic 52, Jones 81
Sent Off: Rafael 88
Chelsea: Cech, Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Luiz, Cole, Ramires, Lampard (c), Moses (Torres 76), Mata (Ake 90), Oscar, Ba
Goal: Mata 86
Booked: Luiz 85
NEXT UP: Tottenham (h), Wednesday 8th May 2013, k.o. 7.45pm
COMING UP: FA Youth Cup Final 2nd Leg v Norwich City (h), Monday 13th May 2013, LIVE updates from 7.45pm
COME ON CHELSEA
TWITTER: @WVOMChelsea