Chelsea star Cesc Fabregas wants to move on from referee debate ESPN staff and PA Sport December 29, 2014 Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas believes referee Anthony Taylor had a bad day at the office in Sundays draw at Southampton but said it was time to draw a line under the matter. Jose Mourinho was adamant Chelsea should have had a potentially match-defining penalty early in the second half when Fabregas went down under pressure from Matt Targett. Instead of a spot-kick, however, referee Taylor deemed it a dive and booked the midfielder -- part of what Mourinho suggested was a growing campaign against his side. Fabregas has said there was definitely contact and added: The referee didnt have the best game of his life and I dont think he will sleep that well tonight. He had an awful game. However, he insisted he did not want to prolong the debate, telling his clubs official website: Were all human and a bad day at the office can happen to anyone. Thats it. Lets not talk more about it -- we have to talk about football. After the Premier League leaders run of five successive wins in all competitions was ended with a 1-1 draw at St Marys, Mourinho told the BBC that Chelsea are the victim of a diving campaign that is costing them points. In other countries where I worked before, tomorrow in the sports papers it would be a front-page scandal because it is a scandal, the Chelsea boss said. I think it is a scandal because it is not a small penalty -- it is a penalty like Big Ben. In this country -- and I am happy with that, more than happy with that -- we will just say that it was a big mistake with a big influence in the result. I am happy that it is this way, with respect for the referee. He made a big mistake like I make, like the players make sometimes. Chelsea have found themselves at the heart of the simulation debate in recent weeks, with Diego Costa and Willian booked for supposedly taking a tumble in the win against Hull. After that match, Tigers boss Steve Bruce compared a Gary Cahill dive to something out of Swan Lake and West Ham manager Sam Allardyce accused Branislav Ivanovic of going down looking for a penalty on Boxing Day. Asked if the Cahill and Ivanovic incidents had influenced referees, Mourinho retorted: They are not incidents. They are not incidents. Of course [it has influenced the referee]. Thats a campaign -- thats a clear campaign. People, pundits, commentators, coaches from other teams -- they react with Chelsea in a way they dont react to other teams. They put lots of pressure on the referee and the referee makes a mistake like this. We lose two points, Fabregas earns a yellow card. Mourinho then let loose again in his postmatch news conference. The Portuguese said this has been an issue since the first day of the season, when Costa was wrongly booked for a dive against Burnley, and called for a change to the system, which currently prevents referees rescinding bookings after matches. The double punishment is something unbelievable, Mourinho said. Anthony [should go to a] screen, see that he has made a mistake. He is a good guy, an honest guy. He writes, I made a mistake, lets clean the yellow card for Cesc. It should be a simple process.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 08:22:37 +0000
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