Chelsea News: Roberto Di Matteo Blames Referee For Chelsea's Defeat To Manchester United

Chelsea were made to taste their first league defeat of this campaign when Manchester United reduced the gap to Chelsea to just one point at the summit of the Barclays Premier League table after a pulsating 3-2 victory at Stamford Bridge.  

The Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo had to taste the second defeat in less than a week and first league defeat after United won the game against nine men Chelsea after Mark Clattenburg sent off defender Branislav Ivanović n and Fernando Torres with just twenty odd minutes remaining to the game.

The Italian believes his team could have managed a result or at least a point if not for the sending off of Torres and an offside goal scored by Javier Hernandez which was allowed to stay by the assistant referee.

"The key decisions from the referee today influenced the result He sent off Fernando Torres and the third goal is offside - those things have clearly decided the game in the favor of our opposition” Di Matteo told Sky Sports.

"Torres put the ball through Evans' legs; he's through and then gets kicked on the shin and goes down. It is as simple as that. It should be a free kick to us and maybe a red card for Evans because he is through to the goal. I was shocked. I thought it was going to be a foul for us, not against us”

"I’ve watched the replay of the third goal again and it's clear once Rafael shoots, Chicharito is in an offside position. Everything went for United in that sense and that makes us unhappy”

"I have spoken to the referee. He will probably watch it again and realize he has made mistakes but we can't change the result now and that is the biggest disappointment for us” Di Matteo added.

However the 42-year-old did not shy off to admit with the first red card of the game which was given to Ivanović.

"I've no complaints about the first sending-off. I think Ivanovic tried to get out of his way but just clipped his heel before Young went down”