Blaming Mark Clattenburg and his assistants for defeat by Manchester United was too easy: the prospect of a thrilling Chelsea win was thrown away by simple player error.
When Branislav Ivanovic let the much quicker Ashley Young get goalside of him, the defender had the option of admitting his foolishness and hoping Petr Cech could use his experience to outwit Young one on one but chose the red card instead.
The referee had no choice but to flourish it and, as Sir Alex Ferguson observed, that was the moment that changed the match.
Then came the admittedly unjust, verging on outrageous, second yellow shown to Fernando Torres for correctly anticipating that an impetuous tackle by Jonny Evans would endanger not just his progress but possibly his shin and ankle. Was Clattenburg the true culprit there? Or was it the hue
and cry about diving that ignores the difference between cheating and skill’s relationship with physicality? FIFA and the Football Association really ought to get a grip of this issue rather than court cheap popularity that evaporates as soon as the so-called tough approach to diving is misapplied.
Finally we come to Javier Hernandez. True, his winner should not have been allowed. The Mexican was offside and such was the blur of bodies as Rafael fizzed the ball into the penalty area that the linesman could not discern it. In such situations, the law says he must favour the attacking team — and he did.
It would have helped him and Clattenburg — and accorded Chelsea justice — if the fourth official had a video-review facility. But again the FA, who have weight on this issue because of the composition of FIFA’s law-making International Board, are throwing it behind a misconception, relying on goal-line technology to drag the game up to date. So don’t shoot the refs. They’re just the carriers of a garbled message.
