LIAM ROSENIOR blasted referee Paul Tierney for gatecrashing Chelsea’s pre-match huddle.
Tierney stood his ground and was surrounded by the Blues squad as they performed their now regular huddle around the centre spot before kick-off and even got a hug from Cole Palmer.
Whatever Chelsea were aiming to achieve with the huddle did not work as Anthony Gordon sealed Newcastle’s first win at Stamford Bridge since 2012.
Rosenior hit out at the ref for focusing on things which do not matter instead of getting decisions right.
The Chelsea boss insisted his players were not out to disrespect anyone, but he hit out at Tierney for not awarding a penalty for a challenge by Nick Woltemade on Palmer in the 63rd minute.
Rosenior claimed Tierney’s main concern in their pre-match meeting was the huddle and compared it to the boss’ complaints about Arsenal moving into Chelsea’s half ahead of their Carabao Cup semi-final tie in January.
He said: “I’m disappointed. There’s more focus and emphasis on the things that don’t matter.
“I’m going to make it really clear, I want to protect my players. I’m respectful to the game.
“My players made the decision that they wanted to be around the ball, to respect the ball and show unity and leadership. That is not my decision.
“That was a decision between the leadership group and the team. There is nothing that they’re doing with that huddle that is disrespectful to the opposition.
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“We had a meeting with the referee, my assistant goes in, the first thing he talks about is our huddle.
“He says about when I complained about Arsenal being in our half. We’re not being disrespectful to the opposition.
“If Paul had focused more on his job, which was to make the right decision, we have a penalty today.
“I don’t think anybody in this room can say that Woltemade doesn’t kick Cole Palmer down in the box. So, let’s focus on the things that are important.
“My team showing unity is not as important as getting the decisions right on the pitch.”
Rosenior added that he had not spoken to Tierney but would be following up on the incident with his bosses at PGMOL, adding: “I’ll be speaking to PGMOL.
“I’ll be speaking to the refs and just trying to get an understanding of why that happened today.”
Toon boss Eddie Howe said: “It’s got absolutely zero relevance to me. I was totally non-plussed by it. I don’t pay any attention to things like that.”
On securing just a second Toon win here in the Premier League era, he added: “It’s nice to end that and get the win on so many levels today.
“That was such an important victory with what we have coming up ahead this week with the two massive games.
“It’s great to go into those games with the good feeling that we have. I thought the mentality, the effort today was very, very good.
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