Aside from the referee and the VAR, Chelsea`s performance against Norwich in last night`s FA Cup was woeful. I wouldn`t be surprised if Thibaut Courtois wasn`t quietly booing under his breath.
The disastrous officiating that left Chelsea needing a penalty shoot-out to see off the Championship side has taken some of flack away from the eleven, ten, nine players on the pitch.
Take nothing away from the Canaries, they deserved something from the game, but, they suffered, as Chelsea have many times, the harsh realities of a penalty shoot out.
Had the foul on Willian, that the referee and the Video Assistant Referee deemed to be a dive, have been given and a penalty awarded and converted (?), the game wouldn`t have gone to penalties.
Pedro getting sent off was exactly what he deserved, the dive was embarrassing, the foul, stupid and still it`s Willian who gets the clog. As for Morata, he too was stupid to argue over his initial yellow card, again for diving. He may well have felt aggrieved at not getting the decision, as he felt a hand on his shoulder. But for a big man, he goes to ground far too easily. It`s unfortunate that referees rarely call those kind of incidents as fouls, but they don`t. In that respect Morata may well have felt justified in going over to try to get the penalty.
Of course, plenty have said on social media today that the ref did Chelsea a massive favour in preventing the Spaniard from taking a penalty in the actual shootout. For sure, there`s every chance he would have missed.
Overall it was not the greatest night in Chelsea`s history, but they did still scrape through thanks to one good save from Willy Caballero and five excellent penalties. Add to that, Chelsea remain unbeaten in eleven games, are still in the FA Cup, League Cup, Checkatrade Trophy, and Champions League, not even Manchester City can say that. So, things aren`t so bad?.are they?
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