Arsenal vs Chelsea FC: 5 talking points from the match at Emirates
1. Questionable refereeing decisions again playing a huge factor in the outcome
Apart from Chelsea’s dominance at the top of the table, another characteristic of this season has been controversial decisions from the officials which have affected crucial matches. Mike Oliver has given the highest number of penalties this season (8), but surprisingly seemed a bit panicky when awarding penalties in this match. Chelsea had 3 clear cut penalties while Arsenal had their own case for a hand ball.
In my view all the 3 penalty shouts from Chelsea had a good case. Bellerin caught Oscar at the back of his foot which was a penalty. Ospina crashing into Oscar and getting none of the ball was a certain penalty. The most shocking decision came when Fabregas was given the yellow card for simulation when he was clearly caught in the knee in the penalty box.
Arsenal also had a case for penalty where the ball hit Gary Cahill’s hand from a shot by Cazorla, but I don’t think it is a penalty because Cahill was too close to the ball and did not have any time to adjust himself.
Chelsea are 10 points clear, so I don’t think Mourinho will be too concerned, but if this was any other day in the middle of the season, we might have seen some ‘Campaign Against Chelsea’ hash tags on Twitter.