Newcastle United’s Nick Woltemade was NOT lucky to have escaped giving away a penalty during their win over Chelsea, according to former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg.
Blues boss Liam Rosenior claimed referee Paul Tierney should have awarded his side a spot kick when Cole Palmer went down under the challenge of Woltemade at Stamford Bridge.
Anthony Gordon’s goal separated the two sides at Stamford Bridge but the home manager was particularly aggrieved by one moment during the game.
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Rosenior claimed Chelsea should have had a penalty against Newcastle
Speaking to a room of journalists after Newcastle’s 1-0 win over Chelsea, an angry Rosenior said: “I don’t think anybody in this room can say that Woltemade doesn’t kick Cole Palmer down in the box.”
In Clattenburg’s view, however, the Blues boss is all wrong in that assessment.
Talking exclusively to Geordie Boot Boys, Clattenburg said: “Liam Rosenior was wrong to say that Chelsea should have had a penalty for a challenge by Nick Woltemade on Cole Palmer.
“There was little contact by the defender for Palmer to go down in this way and the more I look at the slow motion replay, there could be a case of simulation, so Palmer was lucky not to be cautioned.”
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Newcastle United may have been denied a penalty too
Managers are always going to come out and lament decisions that went against. That is, frankly, a tale as old as time.
Still, Rosenior might be wise to keep quiet on this one.
After all, his side were surely lucky that Reece James was not punished when he dragged down Malick Thiaw without looking at the ball when Chelsea were defending a first half corner.
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Perhaps Rosenior is deflecting from all the questions about the strange pre-match huddle that saw the Blues players circle around Tierney, something that could well become an internet meme going forward.
Clearly, these are relatively subjective matters but the James incident looked like much more of a controversial one.
Chelsea did not deserve to beat Newcastle United
For all of Chelsea’s dominance with the ball, they only amassed a slightly higher xG (expected goals).
How much stock one puts into that particular metric is up for debate but anyone watching on would surely admit that it rarely felt as if the Blues would actually score.
Aaron Ramsdale did make some decent saves but, again, it wasn’t like his goal was peppered with shots.
It was a solid away performance from Newcastle and, for all of Rosenior’s comments, his team just didn’t do enough to break them down.
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