“Surprised” – Former top ref says Chelsea unlucky with pivotal goal decision | OneFootball

Chelsea were were beaten by Brighton in a 3-0 embarrassing at the Amex on Friday night, although things could have been a little different.

The Blues went 1-0 down to an incredible goal from alleged transfer target Kaoru Mitoma, and then almost struck back immediately.

A Malo Gusto ball into the box was headed home by Enzo Fernandez to make it 1-1, before the ref chalked it off because of a foul. Enzo had indeed had his hands on the back of Joel Veltman, but it was just a touch and not enough to even change his balance as he competed for the ball.

You usually see those given anyway, but former head of PGMOL Keith Hackett said that even he was surprised the decision was given for such a tiny shove:

“I was surprised that referee Chris Kavanagh ruled out the Chelsea goal for an alleged push. Given what we see inside the penalty area, with the holding, the pulling, the pushing, there hardly seemed to be sufficient force for the Brighton player to go down in the way that he did,” Hackett said in quotes picked up by Football Insider.

Sure, it was soft, but those do tend to be given.

Referee gripes give Chelsea undeserved grounds to complain

Enzo Fernandez of Chelsea scores a disallowed goal. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

But moaning about refereeing decisions only lets the players and the manager off the hook. Given the money we’ve spent, we should be blowing Brighton away with dazzling football even if we do get a bad break go against us now and again.

The refereeing decision may explain why we didn’t equalise, but it certainly doesn’t explain how this team managed one shot on target in 180 minutes of football against this Brighton team – one which lost 7-0 in the game before we played them, by the way.