Man of the match Graham Poll: “I gave Terry two yellow cards! Normally I give three!”

Spurs played well, I should say, with a lot of heart too. Credit to them for their fantastic win. We had our chances but as long as we dont score there’s no one else to blame. The crucial winning goal for Spurs came from a Khalid error again. He is having a tough week. May be he got a little complacent and carried away by his fantastic undoing of Ronaldinho two weeks back. Jose sent the right message to him when he subbed him only after 22 mins of his playing time.

It was a shame that Maka’s super goal could not end up in a winning match. May be he has been working on his shooting recently. Remember that 30-yarder from Maka in the Barca match? I want Maka to score more goals and add to our list of goal scoring midfielders. Robben should realise that he has been playing very well but he has been missing some sitters every game.

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Graham Poll’s refereeing was horrible tonight. If he was a defender for Spurs, we could have won by a 10-goal margin, looking at his judgment. He got some new reputation when he was bad at the World Cup and we all know that he quit the international refereeing after he he showed three yellow before he showed the red to a Croatian player. But he keeps on going in the Premiership.

The Drogba goal that was disallowed was ridiculous. Had that stood, we would have been 2-0 and I dont see any club team in the world to come back and beat Chelsea when we are 2-0 up. And the red card to Terry was a real shocker. I mean, what was the offence in the second yellow? If you find it, please let me know. Instead, couple of the Spurs could have got booked in the same tussle.

After this incident, the 10-man Chelsea played very bravely and took the attack to them. Jose tried all the tricks in his sleeve, he removed Maka, he subbed Khalid, he brought in Kalou, he brought in SWP, he moved Essien back, but the goal eluded us. Kalou was just live wire, he sure made the Spurs defence panic a little bit and I wish he plays more often. Even SWP did a good cameo for his part.

Jose Mourinho was, as always, spot on. He gave credit to Spurs for their win but he was point blank when it came to refereeing:

I just feel sorry for my players and my supporters but at the same time I can say to Tottenham people to carry on their celebrations because this is a big moment for them and they have to enjoy their moment. We didn’t deserve this result because for long periods of the game we were the best team. But Tottenham fought a lot, they fought with their hearts to try to have a special day and they got it so I have to congratulate them.

But in such an emotional game of football with good quality I don’t understand why Mr Poll wants to be part of the show. The show is Chelsea players and Tottenham players, they gave a great game of football, I don’t know why Mr Poll wanted to be such an important person in the game. The disallowed goal for Drogba, only he can explain, it’s 2-0 in the moment where Chelsea were playing great football. And to show a red card to a player for contact in the box when he was the attacking one I felt is also a bit ridiculous. The yellow card to Ghaly is a clear red because he elbowed Essien, so every decision was against us.”

“I think instead of managers complaining and speaking against the referee’s decision I think they should come for an interview. Instead of managers criticising decisions because it looks like I lost the game so I complain about the referee, I think you should come and you should show the images to ask them the reason why the goal was disallowed, the reason why John Terry saw a second yellow card, the reason why Ghaly only saw a yellow card. They have to explain their decisions. It’s very easy to be a referee and after go home and not have to show their faces and they don’t have to give explanations. I lose a game and five minutes after I have to be here to give an interview.

But I prefer to explain it in the easiest way. Tottenham scored two goals, we scored one and congratulations to them. Wednesday is another day and another game.

That was just brilliant Boss! Let’s take this very very seriously. Why can’t the referees be subjected to interviews or press conferences, where they can be given the opportunity to explain certain crucial decisions. Well, we dont expect the results to change retrospectively, but at least, it makes the referees accountable in front of the public and let them take this very seriously as there are a lot of things at stake. There should be some transparent method for evaluation of the referees’ performance in every match, such as a rating by a panel or something of that sort. I’m not saying this because we were at the wrong end, for that matter, we are always at the wrong end when it comes to poor refereeing. May be, some times we also benefit by bad refereeing.

I’m not in favour of the video assistance for the refereeing decisions. It will kill the simplicity of this great game. Jose was accurate in his words when he said referees need not have to show their faces and give explanations. This should change. We should have referees being evaluated and let them be under presure of delivering a good performance.

All said and done, we lost an away game and once again in this season, we are chasing Man Utd. I just can’t wait for the Old Trafford match.

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