Chelsea aftermath

[Johnny H]

Booking was for dissent. You can't argue he gave it to the ref.
FA won't rescind that booking.
If he'd booked Finnan for the 'foul' on Malouda, there would be a chance that would be rescinded, but defo not Carra's.

[Joe King]

Telling the referee that he was wrong even though the ref knew deserves a punishment according to the FA

[Rich]

Even though it was a bull**** decision letter of the law would indicate you can't speak to the Ref like that, even if he is a ******

[Marky]

Far too logical for the FA.

[geoxf]

Even though it was a bull**** decision letter of the law would indicate you can't speak to the Ref like that, even if he is a ******

I guess you're right......I'm still bitter about it all though!.......I'd also like to hear Styles give his groveling apology on air!

Wasn't it also typical of Maureen not to admit to anything untoward about the decision!

[Gordy Boy]

I'm not overly concerned - I think it was almost to be expected. We'd scored, worked very hard at not conceding - especially in the early part of the second half, and then had a piss poor decision go against us to ruin all the good work.

We were bound to get a bit deflated. We still made chances (Riise efforts and Kuyt header), didn't look particularly in trouble at our end either.

I was a bit disappointed we didn't make more use of Crouch when he came on though - I would rather we spent the last 5 minutes chucking long balls into their area to see if we could break down their 9 man defence.

[donpisci]

I guess you're right......I'm still bitter about it all though!.......I'd also like to hear Styles give his groveling apology on air!

Wasn't it also typical of Maureen not to admit to anything untoward about the decision!

He was bound to say that, solely to get a reaction from Rafa and for him to get in to trouble because of it.

I bet he laughed all the way back to the changing room.

[Lynchyred]

Re: Positive words!

Alan Hansen's column

BBC Sport football expert

I cannot remember a decision as bad as the penalty awarded to Chelsea on Sunday going against me during my career

There have been false dawns before but this time I think Liverpool are here to stay.
They look as though they have a squad capable of competing for the Premier League title - Andriy Voronin and Yossi Benayoun, for example, did not even make the bench for Sunday's game with Chelsea.

We will have to wait and see what happens over the course of the campaign but it is an absolute certainty that they will be a lot closer to Manchester United and Chelsea than last season.

Liverpool will be distraught not to have beaten Chelsea at Anfield.

There was not a lot between the two teams but Liverpool deserved to win because they scored a well-created goal while Chelsea's equaliser was a gift.

Refereeing is a hard business, all about split-second decisions, so I do not want to be too critical but referee Rob Styles made a bad mistake in awarding Chelsea a penalty.

As a player you are inevitably going to be on the end of bad decisions from time to time but I cannot remember one as bad as that during my career, certainly given that it came at such a crucial time in a big match.

[dww]

We should have won - we were ****ed over by the ref - thats fact BUT am I the only one a bit concerned by what happened after the pen? Our belief, our aggression, our fight seemed to vanish as if the players themselves didn't think we could push on to win it (after we'd been robbed). We became disjointed and seemed to totally loose our way - case in point was the last minute(s) of injury time - why did we not just pump the ball into the box for Crouchie to create something? At that stage Styles knew he'd ****ed up so why not put pressure on the guy to "even" the match up with a dodgy pen back to us?

I have to say I kind of agree with you. Our reaction wasn't bad in the sense that we didn't let Chelsea into the game anymore but equally we didn't keep pressing forward as much. I think that we need to have more confidence in future but the only way to breed that is to win more games. It was unfortunate we have got gyped in such an early game before we have had a chance to establish a run of wins.

I also think we could have tried to get the ball into Chelseas box quicker at the end when there was very little time left.

Still I think there are many more positive than negatives to take from the game and we can use the sense of injustice to drive us forwards and to create the sort of us against the world feeling that has served Chelsea and United so well in the past.

[Kilteragh]

Chelsea sat very deep and made it difficult for us.

They celebrated in front of their fans afterwards as if they had won the league.

They had one shot on target and that was the penalty. Embarrassing.

Says a lot about us really. We've come an awful long way since the 4-1 thrashing season before last.

[Parm]

I think the lads were still in shock the penalty was given hence it knocked the wind out of our sails big time and we couldn't recover.
It was such a ****ing pity that ****** decided Chelsea should have a penalty, we didn't look like conceding at all, ok Chelsea were coming on strong but they never really created any clear cut chances and we always looked dangerous on the break with the pacy Torres upfront and Pennant down the wing.

Very, very cruel but we have to move on from it, starting at the Stadium of Light this saturday.

[Red Chilli]

I had no problem with the way we played yesterday.
We bossed the game until the pen. I think the reason we fell away after the pen is that there was a little bit of fear by the players. The CHAVS had a 100% record, they will be difficult to keep up with this season and in Malouda they have a threat on the break. At 1-0 we were pushing for a second, I was really pleased with that. But despite bossing the game the Chavs stole an equaliser.
I think it was natural for the players to drop back a bit, aware of the counter-attack. I don't have a problem with that, the last thing we wanted to do was to go 6 points behind them. If it hadn't have been a top 4 club I think we'd have pummeled them after the pen, but as a young team we were a bit tentative.

[Riddler]

I was pleased with the overall performance ,but I do think we missed a trick by not exploiting the Essien early booking , I thought perhaps if Babel had come on earlier and stuck to the left we would have been playing 10 players instead of 11 or was it 12 ? But im not complaining , we even got an apology from the Ref toady and you dont always get them.