Chelsea 2 Manchester Utd 3: Poor decisions trip up Londoners as visitors steal a victory march

Monday 29 October 2012

Fernando Torres went to ground and threw his arms up in search of sympathy.

Fernando Torres is left in disbelief after being sent off for an alleged dive. Pictures: Getty

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The Chelsea striker was given little from referee Mark Clattenburg, who showed Torres a second yellow card after believing him to have gone down without any contact. His side then collapsed just as theatrically.

That they slumped to defeat by Manchester United will do little to lift the mood around Stamford Bridge, especially as Sir Alex Ferguson's side had been waiting 10 years to smuggle three points out of the London ground. United left with a bang yesterday, Javier Hernandez scoring from an offside position with only 15 minutes to go. That made it 3-2 and Chelsea could not recover.

The red card given to Torres was a moment of frustration for Chelsea – not least as the Spaniard had been caught by United's Jonny Evans – but also as his side had already been piqued by the dismissal of Branislav Ivanovic, even if his foul on Ashley Young had been far more clear cut. Chelsea were given scant sympathy from Sir Alex Ferguson, though."Well, did [Torres] intend to dive?" said the United manager. "Jonny may have just caught him a little bit but you can carry on running. But he chose to go down. He could have carried on and scored. That is what I don't understand."I would have never missed that chance. I would've taken it in my time [as a player]. I would've never gone down. But he did go down – that's the issue – and he's already been booked. So it's his own fault."If the pace of the match picked up towards the end then it is only because the action had been left exhausted by the early stages. United went ahead after just four minutes when Robin Van Persie's shot deflected off the crossbar, on to the behind of David Luiz and into the net.Stamford Bridge was stunned. So was Luiz.The Dutchman struck again eight minutes later, stroking in Antonio Valencia's low pass after being finding space by the penalty spot. Stamford Bridge was able to pause for breath until the last minute of the first half when Juan Mata clipped a delightful free-kick into the net to bring Chelsera back into contention.Ramires powered in a second as the hosts drew level but the sense of equality was fleeting. First Ivanovic went. Then Torres followed. "We are massively disappointed that key decisions were wrong," said Roberto Di Matteo, the Chelsea manager. "It always seems to be in favour of the opposition. That's a massive disadvantage for us."I thought at 2-2, we looked like the team that were probably going to win the game. So it's a shame, because it was a good game of football with two good teams and the officials ruined it."The decision to allow Hernandez's goal to stand was certainly a poor decision. Van Persie fired a shot at goal which was deflected by Petr Cech, but only as far as Rafael. The United full-back drove a low shot at goal and Hernandez spun inside the six yard box to turn past Cech from an offside position."They say that the winning goal came from an offside, so that's the bit of luck I think we got," said Ferguson. "I said before the game we've had some shocking decisions down here. It's very difficult to come here and get all the decisions – I must say that."w

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Chelsea 2 Manchester Utd 3: Poor decisions trip up Londoners as visitors steal a victory march

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