I seem to remember Robbie Fowler doing the same (but being waved away)? DiCanio's decision to stop a game when he was likely to score cause the goalie was injured also stands out.
We were beaten by two stunning strikes, one appalling decision, and some awful defending -especially after we had to chase the game. We will never know how badly that decision affected the outcome, we were pushing for the equaliser anyway, and at 1-1 it could have been a different game. Also, perversely, our goal cost us. If Bale hadn't of been following up to put it in the net. Atkinson would have had no option but to send Cech off, reducing you to 10 men. On such things games change. Yes, we didn't play anywhere near our best, but you had all the luck, and decisions going for you.
The only decision that went for either team was the 2nd goal. Other than that ref pretty much got it spot on from my view. The 2nd goal could have cost you the game but didn't. To your credit you raised your game for a few minutes, scored to get the one goal deficit back and we also had Luiz taken off. The reason you lost the game was from this point on we dominated, created and took our chances. At 2-1 you could still have won but played badly especially your central midfield and defence.
Like I say, at 1-1 it could have been a different game.But that idiot Atkinson made it 2-0 instead.Had Bale not been there, you would have been down to 10, and with your backs up against the wall. Then there would surely have been a different scoreline.
The ref missed a lot but that's not being talked about because of the ghost goal. Drogba did 3 fouls before he was booked but 2 of the fouls were missed. Normally a ref will book a player if they do 3 fouls in such a short space of time and therefore should have been on a yellow before clipping Lennon and getting a 2nd yellow. Question is, if he decided not to clip Lennon because he was on a yellow then Lennon has a free run at a defender which 9 times out of 10 he wins. We might have scored but will never know. I was gald the goal was given and no pen & cech sent off seemed fair but hearing more it seems the goal could stand & goalie be sent off. Not sure how true this is because I've never seen a player sent off when advantage has been played, only a yellow. After 2-1 we were all over Chelsea and had a hand full of back to back corners which finally was knocked out of the 18 yard boxes and 3 spurs players lined up around the edge of the box to take a shot once it was passed in. Chelsea were at sea & it's those defensive moments that cause panic and goals are scored. Problem was just before we were about to do all of this Drogba decided to lay on the floor (no head injury) and the ref stopped the game. There was no clear head injury so why is the ref stopping the game? Twice I saw Chelsea players control with their hands in our area to set up a chance. Again these are yellow carded offences which will mean these players wouldn't risk a hard tackle for the rest of the game. But the one hand ball that summed up the game was when it was 3-1 and from this Chelsea got the ball, moved up the pitch and got the foul that made it 4-1 and that was Cahill's arms by his side block which hit his arm after he moved his body to block it. Handball is hand to ball not ball to hand. You can't put your arms by your side only to move them with your body towards the ball and block it & not expect to give a pen. If he stood there and it hit him then yes no pen. But after all this, there is no reason why we should roll over like we did and let Chelsea end up with a 5-1 score.
You forget the incident when Luiz first could have tripped Azza and then put his arm round him- worse than Derry and Young last week. Lennon stayed on his feet because generally we are a fair team- we are always near the top of the fair play league. It could have been a penalty but....
