CHELSEA boss Graham Potter was criticised for NOT slamming officials after the Blues were denied a late penalty. Potter congratulated West Ham ’s Tomas Soucek for a “great save” from Conor Gallagher’s 89th-minute shot yet refused to blame referee Craig Pawson or VAR official Neil Swarbrick.
But ex- Chelsea star Joe Cole and fellow BT Sport pundit Rio Ferdinand claimed the Blues boss should have created an “uproar” over the decision to take the heat off him and his team after another disappointing 1-1 draw. Cole noted Potter’s lack of experience managing a club Chelsea’s size and said:
“He’s always diplomatic, he’s doing a fantastic job. “But if he had someone in his staff who’s maybe been at that level, managed at that level, you need to cause a bit of an uproar because it does two things. “It takes the deflection from the bad elements of your performance, and it also puts it on VAR.
"Let these Chelsea fans leave the stadium feeling hard done by instead of thinking, ‘Why didn’t we beat West Ham? We’ve signed all these players’. “It changes the narrative of the story.”
Potter tried to laugh off the controversy, saying:
“It was a great save. You need your goalkeeper sometimes to get you a point. “It looked quite a handball and I didn’t know Toma could get down so easily and save like that. “It’s not for me to say about VAR. Every single decision and action you won’t get the same one again, so it’s very hard to get consistency. “Sometimes they go for you and sometimes they don’t — and you have to accept it.”
But Ferdinand said Potter should have taken a leaf out of the book of former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho. Ferdinand said:
“Mourinho would have been at it and it would have been the story of tomorrow. “The back page would have been ‘Mourinho slams VAR’, and it takes the gloss off what happened on the pitch. “There were some bits you could improve on with Chelsea — that would not have been the focus. “But it probably will be now with the money spent, the influx of players etc.”
A few minutes before the Soucek incident, VAR ruled out his “goal” for West Ham for offside against Declan Rice in the build-up. And back in September, VAR more controversially disallowed a Maxwel Cornet equaliser for the Hammers at Stamford Bridge because of a clash between Jarrod Bowen and Blues goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
PGMOL later admitted it was one of six mistakes made by VAR officials in the first part of the season. Hammers boss David Moyes claimed he had not seen the Soucek "handball".
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