DESPITE BOSSING THE Premier League since the very start of the season, could it be that Chelsea are growing a little concerned by the momentum of the chasing pack?
Earlier today, the club posted an article on their official website entitled ‘Penalty puzzle’ – a detailed look at the amount of spot-kicks awarded to the team this season in comparison to previous campaigns.
This term, Chelsea have been awarded two penalties in 28 top-flight games – a statistic the club has deemed ‘abnormally low’.
So far, so-so.
But the piece quickly ebbs into the realms of conspiracy.
“Of course, it could be that when teams have played the league leaders they have been particularly careful inside their own area. We all have plenty of recollections suggesting this is not the case however.”
From the first half of our very first league game, at Burnley, a number of key penalty-box decisions have not gone our way, Diego Costa the victim that evening after being felled trying to round the keeper. He should have been awarded Shed End penalties against Liverpool and PSG recently, too.”
The use of certain words – ‘victim’ and ‘should have’ – reeks of the same kind of self-pitying we’ve already seen from the club this season.
After a 1-1 draw with Southampton in late-December, Jose Mourinho raged at referee Anthony Taylor’s decision to not award a penalty to Cesc Fabregas but book the Spaniard for diving instead.
“That’s a campaign, that’s a clear campaign”, he said.
“People, pundits, commentators, coaches from other teams, they react with Chelsea in a way they don’t react to other teams. They put lots of pressure on the referee and the referee makes a mistake like this. We lose two points, Fàbregas earns a yellow card. In other countries where I worked before, tomorrow in the sports papers it would be a front-page scandal because it is a scandal.”
Mourinho was fined £25,000 for the outburst but as much as his was a passionate and excitable release, easily excused as being in the heat of the moment after a disappointing result, this latest development seems a calculated and more subtle jab at authorities.
The article concludes by referencing allegedly-contentious penalty-area incidents from a litany of other games involving Chelsea.
“At Old Trafford in late October, both John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic were wrestled to the ground (above) as they tried to attack an in-swinging free-kick in front of the Stretford End. Cesc Fabregas was then cruelly booked (pictured top) after being tripped inside the area at Southampton and four days later Tottenham escaped after handling close to their own goal.
“All those were before Sunday’s incident involving Ivanovic and the previous home game against Burnley when the right-back’s goalbound shot was infamously blocked by the clearest of raised arms.”
