Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has admitted it would be better if Anthony Taylor did not officiate any of his side’s matches going forwards.
Blues fans have a lengthy list of grievances towards Taylor and that list only grew longer on Sunday as the referee failed to make two huge decisions that ultimately proved costly as Chelsea were held 2-2 by Tottenham Hotspur.
Kai Havertz appeared to be fouled in the build-up to Spurs’ first equaliser, but Taylor declined to blow his whistle and later ruled that the incident was too far back in the play to justify a VAR review.
He then opted against sending off Cristian Romero after the Spurs defender was seen blatantly pulling the hair of Marc Cucurella – a decision which was not overturned by VAR – just seconds before Harry Kane’s late equaliser.
Taylor’s decisions drew a furious response from Tuchel, who was shown a red card after the final whistle when he came to blows with Antonio Conte for the second time in the game.
When asked whether Taylor should never referee Chelsea again, Tuchel responded: “Maybe it would be better.
“But honestly, we also have VAR to help make the right decisions. Since when can players be pulled at their hair? Since when is that? And if he does not see it, I don’t blame him.
“I didn’t see it, but we have people at VAR who check this and then you see it and then how can this not be a free-kick and how can it not be a red card? How?
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“This has nothing to do with the referee in this case. If he does not see something, that’s why we have people to check if there’s a decisive error going on.”
Asked if Chelsea are ‘worried’ in games officiated by Taylor, Tuchel admitted: “Yeah, of course.”
He continued: “I don’t think that just some of the fans think that [Taylor has an issue with Chelsea]: I can assure you that the whole dressing room of us, every person thinks that. Not only the fans. You know the players, they know what’s going on when they are on the pitch. They know it.”