Everton manager Roberto Martinez has claimed that Chelsea influence(d) key refereeing decisions at Stamford Bridge. This is after Jose Mourinho has made new remarks that his side are especial victims of poor treatment from officials.
Jose Mourinho made a surprise appearance on Sky Sport’s “Goals” on Sunday morning, where he criticised a wide range of people, including Burnley’s Ashley Barnes who made a potentially leg-breaking challenge on Nemanja Matic yesterday (for which he was wrongly unpunished), referees and Sky Sports themselves. Mourinho was particularly outspoken on the television programme and could well be in for another FA charge against him.
Mourinho said, “They (referees) are trying but they are not doing well. If the referee cannot see, some official in front of a screen cannot miss it. We want to protect the integrity of the game. This could have been the end of his career. I cannot find a stronger way to describe it. Matic is a very lucky guy.
a Football is about emotion and sometimes you lose emotion. Clearly Matic had reason to lose emotion. What could be the consequence of the Matic push? Nothing. One second later he (Barnes) is standing, but Matic could be end of career.a
a I can only remember one decision all season which went in our favour. Now I am risking my dugout in the final because I am having this conversation. I speak about these incidents week after week, because they happen week after week. My players are not getting the respect they deserve and it is too much.a
However, Everton boss Roberto Martinez doesn’t believe that Chelsea are not getting their way in the Premier League. Martinez was left appalled with Gareth Barrya s sending off at Stamford Bridge when his side took on the Chelsea a week ago, while Branislav Ivanovic who appeared to strangle an opponent, escaped unpunished, even after retrospective action.
a Unfortunately, the sending off really late on reflected the emphasis that the home team had in trying to influence the referee and take advantage of their role of playing at Stamford Bridge,a said Martinez
a Mo Besic being booked after five minutes was a very loose way to referee a game and there was no need to show as many yellow cards as there were. But, more importantly, I never felt there was any consistency in judging every action equally between the two teams.
a That made it a tougher way to digest a defeat that we didna t deserve and showed a very similar ending to last seasona s game at Stamford Bridge.
a Big games need strong referees but, for the future, we relish the challenge of finding the way of overcoming these disadvantages by playing our football in a typical Everton manner.