(Image): Data shows Rosenior and his striker are letting Fofana off the hook too easily | OneFootball

Joao Pedro has joined his manager in claiming that the red card for Chelsea yesterday didn’t change things much – we beg to differ.

Wesley Fofana’s red card was a turning point in Chelsea’s draw with Burnley, but both manager Liam Rosenior and goalscorer Joao Pedro have tried to diminish it by pointing out that the team should have scored a second before then.

That’s true – but you also can’t overstate how the red changed the game.

Joao Pedro claims red card wasn’t the major factor in Chelsea draw

The momentum graph showing the swing after the red card.

“I think the red card made things difficult but we still had enough about us to get the win. Before the red card, we should have put the game to bed,” the striker said to the club’s official website.

“When you go to a man less, of course things get more difficult. I didn’t really see the incident too clearly, but we need to learn how to manage the game in those situations because, regardless of having a man less, we are Chelsea and these type of games at home we have to win.”

Well Joao Pedro may not have seen it but we did, and we’ll tell you now it was a silly tackle to make in a situation where it didn’t need to be made. Of course as Rosenior has said the lack of a second goal when we were on top cost us just as much – but there’s no denying it changed the game. Just look at the momentum meter above.

In other news…

JP was also frustrated by the way that his team hadn’t scored the goals they needed to seal three points – but we think he’s wrong about that.

Wesley Fofana was went off after 72 minutes yesterday, and the game changed in that moment. But Rosenior insisted that the draw wasn’t down to him. He had something else to blame.

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