In news that was probably expected given Jose Mourinho’s track record with the FA and officials, Chelsea FC have appealed the red card shown to Thibaut Courtois by Michael Oliver during Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Swansea City.
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The Belgian goalkeeper was dismissed during Saturday’s game for taking out Bafetimbi Gomis in a one-on-one situation. Oliver determined that Courtois had denied the Swans striker a clear goalscoring opportunity and thus reached into his top pocket to send the big man packing. Courtois, for his part, did little in the way of protest and slowly trundled off the pitch.
In his post-match comments, Mourinho refused to discuss the situation as he did not want to give the press ammunition to paint him in a bad light. He did, however, state that his side were ‘punished’.
"I do not want to speak about red cards…I want to react this way so you don’t say he was [complaining] from day one. In day one we were punished, but it was not on day one that I opened my mouth. – via ESPNFC"
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BBC Sport now report that the Blues will protest the red card and the subsequent ban with the appeal set to be heard by the FA on Tuesday.
The dismissal has drawn much debate since it occurred in the 52nd minute, and the apparent support for both sides of the argument suggests that Jose will not win. It was certainly a penalty, but some people claim that the presence of Gary Cahill (who was trying to chase down Gomis) should have led to Courtois receiving a yellow card instead.
On the other side of affairs, many pundits and fans believe that had Courtois not have made contact, Gomis would have had a clear and easy opportunity to take a shot on an empty goal. Thus this was undoubtedly a clear goalscoring chance and a red card offence.
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Personally, I back the latter of the two arguments. Furthermore, it is an incident where you can understand why Oliver did what he did. Much like a tight offside call, there are arguments in equal weight either way and thus you just have to accept whatever call the referee made.
Mourinho may firmly believe that Courtois should not have been sent off, but either way this appears like another classic ‘deflect the attention off the players’ trick that Jose plays when his team comes under fire.
Chelsea were pretty poor on Saturday but instead of criticising the team, he preferred to talk/not talk about the officiating while lambasting the performance of his medical team.
Having said that, with Manchester City set to be the fixture that Courtois sits out, it’s worth a punt anyway.
In the meantime, take a look for yourself and sound off in the comments below!
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