Ever since Manchester United has won 3-2 against Chelsea in a controversial manner, a series of developments have gone underway. The latest one being Chelsea lodging a complaint with the Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg, who might find himself in hot water for using “inappropriate language” to two of their players in a tumultuous defeat on Sunday.
Entering into the match as favorites, an unbeaten Chelsea was drubbed for the first time by Man U owing to two controversial decisions that resulted in the ouster of two of its crucial players. Javier Hernandez scored for Man U with a dubious-looking 75th minute winner after Clattenburg had shown red cards to Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic and Fernando Torres in quick succession in the final half hour.
“We have lodged a complaint to the Premier League match delegate with regards to inappropriate language used by the referee and directed at two of our players in two separate incidents,” a club spokesman told reporters.
“The match delegate will pass the complaint to the Football Association. We will make no further comment at this time.”
It’s learnt that Chelsea will not stoop to the extent of naming the players in question or of what nature the remarks were, but the spokesman refrained from denying that John Obi Mikel had approached the referee’s room once the game was finished.
Mikel was charged for expressing his dissent during the second half. As far as Clattenburg is considered, he made no remarks but the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMO), the official management controlling top English referees, released a statement that the allegations are “being treated with the utmost seriousness”.
Full cooperation is expected from Clattenburg and maximum support would be lent in order to determine the veracity of the latest developments and charges against him. Angry fans resorted to clashes resulting in leg injury to one of the stewards at the west London venue who was immediately rushed to hospital.
Torres was the first to be shown red card for a dangerous dive against United defender Jonny Evans. It was a dark phase for the Premier League because of the dubious decisions taken by the referees during the whole weekend. Similar situations like that one of the last night between United and Chelsea were found in the wake of Luis Suarez’s winner as well that proved to be detrimental in the case of 2-2 draw between Everton and Liverpool.
Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo came harshly against FIFA referee Clattenburg for his yet another controversial decision for “ruining” the match that went against their side. Fans were fuming already after Torres was shown the second yellow card and finally ousting him from the rest of the match. Criticism started pouring against the referee with the Spaniard’s exit that powered United to an even further extent. Several of the tactics of the Fulham club have been exposed such as Ashley Cole’s defense becoming vulnerable.
“We must be disappointed that key decisions were wrong,” Chelsea manager Di Matteo told reporters.
