Wayne Rooney asking referee Martin Atkinson to tell Mark Clattenburg "thanks again."
David Luiz's first goal in a Chelsea shirt and a Frank Lampard penalty gave Chelsea a 2-1 win over Manchester United on Tuesday (see match highlights here). Yet, despite the much talked about incident where Wayne Rooney went unpunished for elbowing Wigan's James McCarthy with the match still 0-0 (Man Utd went on to win 4-0) just four days earlier, Alex Ferguson still thought it was appropriate to have a moan about the referee at Stamford Bridge.
After the unsuspended Wayne Rooney scored the only goal of the first half, David Luiz was lucky to make it to the 81st minute when he was subbed off with just a yellow card after a few rash challenges mixed in with his generally fantastic play. Making it worse for Man United, Nemanja Vidic was sent off in added time. And Fergie wasn't pleased with any of this. From the Manchester Evening News:
"That's three years in a row (at Stamford Bridge) referees' decisions have changed the game."
On the Luiz decision, he added: "It was incredible. Even before that he'd done Chicharito off the ball. He'd done him late. Nothing done, the referee's in front of it.
"He does Rooney clear as day, (the referee is) six yards from it, he doesn't do anything. That changed the game.
"These are decisions that change the game. And he's going to be refereeing every week.
"But I'm proud of the players. They've endured a lot of decisions against them but they've come through it, they've done their best. They've created good chances.
"They didn't deserve that."
Asked if Chelsea were back in the title race, he added: "If they get decisions like tonight then it can change everything.
"They got a lot of decisions tonight that surprised me."
Yes, it's always surprising when referee decisions go against Manchester United. After all, no other manager has inordinately long periods of added time named after him. Still, it happens to every side and Man United are still in first place, so to chalk every loss to Chelsea over the last three years up to poor referee decisions just isn't necessary.
Anyway, here are some delightful images from the evening...
Cole: How was your weekend?
Rooney: Great. Yours?
Cole: Awesome.
Branislav Ivanovic and Nani trying to fight the overpower urge to kiss each other.
Chicharito clearly is not used to wearing the mayonnaise gloves The Berba gave him yet.
Didier Drogba incredibly confused as to why Sideshow Bob is hugging him.
Martin Atkinson realizing that he is moments away from having Vidic use his Terminator arm to reach into his chest and feast on his still beating heart.
And finally, one for Man United fans...
Photos: Getty, Reuters
Amerie Rachel Bilson Karen Carreno Bijou Phillips Marika Dominczyk
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