• Defender only booked after early foul on goalbound Demba Ba
• André Villas-Boas apologises for fitness coach’s celebration
The real Chelsea made a dramatic return at Newcastle with an emphatic win that could have been by double the score, though in the best traditions of the club the 3-0 victory came with double the usual amount of controversy.
First Newcastle were annoyed when Mike Dean failed to dismiss David Luiz for a professional foul in the fifth minute. Then, when Salomon Kalou clinched victory a minute from time, the home bench was incensed by José Mario Rocha, Chelsea’s fitness coach, invading their technical area to celebrate provocatively in their faces.
David Luiz should almost certainly have gone for hauling down Demba Ba to deny a clear scoring opportunity, and Alan Pardew felt with some justification that the outcome could have been different had Newcastle been playing 10 men. “I thought the referee was going to produce a red card,” the Newcastle manager said. “I don’t really understand why he didn’t. I was really angry, and I’m sure if it had happened to one of our players he would have had to walk.
“I asked Mike Dean about it at half-time and he said he wasn’t sure Ba had control of the ball. I’ll have to look in the rulebook about that because it’s a new one on me. It really hurts, because with the atmosphere and the crowd it could have been a completely different afternoon. Chelsea would have struggled.”
André Villas-Boas did not attempt to defend the decision. “It was a major incident, but the referee made a decision that went our way,” he said. “I am not going to apologise for that, after all the decisions that have gone against us this season, offsides at Old Trafford and penalties against Bayer Leverkusen and Liverpool.
“Maybe a big decision went our way, but we play even better with 10 or nine men anyway. We are making good progress now and I want to praise all my players for their amazing fighting spirit. I don’t know why they have ever been questioned.”
Villas-Boas did apologise for Rocha’s behaviour. “I
