Chelsea's 12th Man Cost United (at Chelsea, 03.01.11)

Hello,

Derek here subbing for Dan who may be too angry to review match.

In a very exciting, free-flowing, hard hitting and controversial match, Chelsea increased its unbeaten streak against United at the bridge to 9 games as they beat United 2-1. United looked like the better team until about 38 minutes in and opened the scoring with a Wayne Rooney, outside-the-box strike, beating Cech on the near post. Luiz equalized off an Essian free-kick and Lampard hammered home a penalty kick called on Smalling.

I could go through this match in more detail but I have an opinion I would like to share. I got an email right after the game from a fan of another team. He said:

"Manchester United lose a game...must have been bad refereeing. They can't just lose a game. That's unpossible."

I would like to challenge fans out there. I will say point blank that, after watching the game again the next day, I will agree with every card and major call/card against United. Also, Chelsea played well and are a good team.

With pen/paper in hand, counted the amount of calls v. non-calls for both teams. After subtracting the difference, United had 14 calls more than Chelsea. Of those, 5could go either way. 2 were really bad calls in the opinion of myself and the rule book however the referee may not have seen it. The other 7, the referee was in a good position. I re-played each of them over and over and I really, objectively, cannot see how the call either did not go United’s way or a card did not come out.

Was I mad the first or second time Carrick was kicked? Nope. Was I mad the third time he was kicked and no card? A little. Am I made because the referee missed the Terry hand ball in the box in the few minutes of the game? No, because referees are human. They made mistakes. One mistake or even six small ones do not bother me. Missing 1-2 big ones do not even bother me.

My challenge to the fans out there who say United supporters always blame the referee when they lose is this: give me a number or at what point should a fan become angry? 4 bad calls? 7 bad calls? 14 bad calls? Please post your opinion.

Rant over.

Derek