Chelsea: Liam Rosenior slams referee in Newcastle loss as penalty call 'missed' after huddle disrupted | OneFootball

Chelsea suffered a blow in their bid to seal a top-four Premier League finish

Liam Rosenior has said that Chelsea will be contacting PGMOL after referee Paul Tierney got caught up in the middle of his side’s centre-circle huddle during their 1-0 defeat at home to Newcastle.

Rosenior has praised his side for the routine, saying that it shows his young team is united.

Ahead of kick-off against Newcastle, though, Chelsea’s huddle was disrupted by Tierney, who stood in the middle of Chelsea’s players, with Cole Palmer jokingly wrapping his arms around the official.

Asked about the incident, Rosenior said he was disappointed that the focus was on his team’s huddle and not on the performance of Tierney, who he felt had denied Chelsea a penalty in the second-half when Cole Palmer went over under the challenge of Nick Woltemade.

“My players made the decision that they wanted to be around the ball, to respect the ball and show unity and leadership. That is not my decision. That was a decision between the leadership group and the team.

Liam Rosenior was not impressed with Paul Tierney’s behaviour

Action Images via Reuters

“There is nothing they're doing with that huddle that is disrespectful to the opposition. We had a meeting with the referee. My assistant goes in. The first thing he (Tierney) talks about is our huddle. He says about when I complained about Arsenal being in our half.

“We're not being disrespectful to the opposition. If Paul had focused more on his job, which was to make the right decisions, we have a penalty. I don't think anybody in this room can say that Woltemade doesn't kick Cole Palmer down in the box.

“So let's focus on the things that are important. My team showing unity is not as important as getting the decisions right on the pitch.”

Newcastle secured their first win at Stamford Bridge in 14 years after Anthony Gordon’s 18th-minute goal against the run of play.

It was a goal that came after Joe Willock breached Chelsea’s high line, and Rosenior said it was a tactical issue that led to Newcastle striking despite Chelsea’s dominance on a frustrating evening at Stamford Bridge.

“Yeah, there's a tactical issue. We press in a different way to most teams. It's a new way of pressing. We don't step on the press and we don't cover in a position that we should have done. Mistakes happen.

“They had nothing. They had nothing in the game and we gave them a goal. We talk about the press. I think the press was the reason Newcastle had to kick long balls back to us and we controlled the game.

“But in that moment, we make a mistake and it feels like at the moment every mistake we're making is ending up in the back of our net and we need to make sure we stop those mistakes.”