Ander Herrera was a victim of circumstance when Michael Oliver showed the Manchester United midfielder a first-half red card at Stamford Bridge according to Frank Lampard.
In the 19th minute Phil Jones was easily beaten by Hazard before Herrera decided to stop his run and take him down, leading to his first yellow card from Michael Oliver.
United had kept very tight on Hazard, who was fouled four times in the first half, more than any other player on the pitch. Just after a foul on the Belgian by Jones, Herrera tripped up the Chelsea livewire again.
Already booked, the midfielder was incredulous when Oliver showed him a second yellow card for what was a very soft foul.
In the BBC studio at half-time, surprisingly Lampard came to the Manchester United man’s defence.
‘When you’re in the heat of the battle those are the moments, you take a view,’ said Lampard.
‘The crowd is up, Jones could have got a yellow, it was Jones’ third foul on Hazard – strong one
‘I don’t think in this instance it was a yellow card necessarily but when you dive in straight after the ref is ready to book someone after that first one’
Former United man Phil Neville also thought the referee had got it wrong, pointing out it was only Herrera’s second foul.
‘I don’t think it’s a yellow card for the foul he actually made though,’ said Neville.
‘It was Jones that tackled Hazard before, not Herrera. He’s not been booked for persistent fouling. That second yellow card is weak for me.’
Alan Shearer was the only pundit who thought that the United man merited his sending off.
He added: ‘You can’t complain with [the first booking] at all. He knows what he’s doing there, he’s stopping Hazard.
‘The second one, I know he hasn’t made a foul since his yellow card but the referee is talking to them [about] constantly fouling Hazard. So it’s stupid.’
United manager Jose Mourinho at first said he did not want to comment on the red card when asked about Herrera’s dismissal.
‘I don’t speak. I just want to say that I’m really proud of my players, I’m really proud of Manchester United fans,’ said the former Chelsea boss.
‘We have a very important match on Thursday (in the Europa League) and I want to try to rest a little bit, to try to prepare the team the best we can for the Thursday match.’
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