JOSE Mourinho was left fuming, and rightly so, after a couple of horrendous officiating by Martin Atkinson and his team of officials left the BPL pacesetters to be forced to a controversial 1-1 draw by struggling Burnley. Mou claimed there were four key moments which influenced the outcome of the game and I have to say I agree with some of his claims, but not all of them.

“There are four moments of the game where you can write the story,” a frustrated Mou told BBC Football. “Minutes 30, 33, 43 and 69. Don’t ask me more questions. I can’t go through the incidents. I am punished when I refer to them.”

While Mourinho could refuse to shed more light on his comment for fear of being punished again, I at least can objectively look at those four incidents and make my comments in comparison to those of a few other analysts. Here are the four incidents and my take on them:

The Key Incidents According To Mou

30th Minute – Barnes Foul On Ivanovic

Burnley keeper Tom Heaton launches the ball forward and team-mate Ashley Barnes appears to catch Branislav Ivanovic with a knee to the back of his legs as the two challenge for a header. The Blues defender reacts furiously to the challenge but referee Atkinson does not award a free-kick.

MY COMMENT: I have no doubt in my mind that Mr Atkinson got this call wrong. That was a stone-wall free-kick on my book. And Atkinson should issue Barnes with a yellow card for overly aggressive (or slightly dangerous play).

Former England captain and BPL all-time top scorer Alan Shearer agrees with me 100 percent when talking on BBC: “Ashley Barnes goes up for the header with Ivanovic, he leads with his foot, and he’s very fortunate. He kicks out, with studs into the back of Ivanovic‘s hamstring, and that should be a yellow card.”

MY VERDIC: MR Mourinho, you’re very correct on this one: the ref GOT IT WRONG!
According to the aggrieved Chelsea boss, the second key moment happened on 33 minutes when Atkinson refused to award the fancied hosts a penalty kick on 33rd minute.

Ivanovic is at the centre of the action again. Blues new boy, Juan Cuadrado pulls the ball back for the Serbia defender and he strikes a first-time shot from the edge of the area which hits the raised arm of Michael Kightly. In all fairness, the Clarets man is turning his back on the ball. Ivanovic claims handball but ref Atkinson is unmoved.

MY COMMENT: There was no doubt it was a handball by Kightly, and his hand appeared to be in an unnatural position. To his credit, Atkinson was in a very good position and spotted the incident. But nobody could conclusively prove Kightly deliberately handled the ball – remember he was turning away as Iva let fly, and he needed his hand to balance his motion.

Therefore, I think it was a case of ball-to-hand, an accident; and it would have been harsh to award a penalty in such situation. Of course, I agree some refs would give it – remember that all important pharse in Law 12 of FIFA’s Laws of the Game which states clearly: “in the opinion of the referee,…”

However, if a ref decides to give the “culprit” the benefit of doubt like Atkinson gave in this case, I can understand that and I can live with it.

But Shearer disagrees with me: “This is a blatant handball by Michael Kightly. Martin Atkinson is about 10 yards away and Ivanovic is seven or eight yards away. Kightly turns his back and sticks his arm out. That has to be a penalty. It’s not as if he’s gone to block it with his arms down. His arm’s right out there. It has to be handball.”

MY VERDICT: I go with Atkinson on this one – Kightly accidentally handled the ball. So Mr Mourinho, NO PENALTY, sir!

Burnley defender Jason Shackell is dispossessed by Diego Costa and, in trying to make up for his mistake, the Clarets player appears to push the Chelsea striker. Costa falls to the ground but Atkinson again decides against awarding a spot-kick to the home side.

MY COMMENT: This is a stone-wall pen on my book. I think Costa’s shady reputation caught up with him here; but that’s poor refereeing. Atkinson has got to call that one and I was surprised he didn’t!

Yes, we’ve been inundated with stories of players going down “too easily.” But I think that’s balderdash! What refs should look out for is whether there was contact, minimal or not. Anyway it takes very little contact to upend a man in full flight; and Costa was in flight.

Shackell shoves Costa in the box. He gets his legs caught up too. That’s a penalty for me. And Shearer agrees: “It should be a penalty,” says the former England captain.

MY VERDICT: Mr Atkinson and his assistants certainly have a case to answer here: how on earth didn’t the ref point to the spot! Mourinho is right not to be mollified – STONE-WALL PENALTY!

Nemanja Matic is dismissed for a reactive push on Barnes after a late dangerous tackle from the Burnley player. Mourinho said: “What happened to Matic was in minute 69 and minute 69 had a big relationship with minute 30 because normally that player, if I can call him a player, should have been in the shower in minute 31.
“There wouldn’t have been a minute 69 if the person in charge had dealt with minute 30 properly,” he argued.

MY COMMENT: I’m afraid I have to disagree with Mr Mourinho on two of his three claims here. Starting from his last one where he claimed that the incident on 69 minutes would not have happened had Barnes been red-carded on 30 minutes. Hello sir, while it’s true Barnes fouled Ivanovic, the maximum penalty he would have gotten would have been a yellow card as both Shearer and I concurred earlier. Therefore the Clarets Butcher would still have been around to met out the dangerous tackle on Matic.

On Matic’s red card, I feel the midfielder let himself and his team down. You just can’t take the law into your hands in a civilized society or we have anarchy! No matter how much you have been wronged, the law must be allowed to take its course, especially for a very well paid athlete. The midfielder’s reaction was violent conduct and fetched an automatic red card, no story.

But, yes, Atkinson didn’t do his job by not even booking Barnes for his horrific challenge. I’d like to think that was a straight red had the ref seen it. It would be very generous indeed if he was given a yellow card for such a career-ending tackle. And even in that case, he would still have been sent to early showers if he had been correctly cautioned on 30 minutes.

Therefore, I understand Mou’s frustrations because I fancy Chelsea to win quite comfortably were the two teams reduced to 10 men each in that incident. Former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin was critical of both Matic‘s reaction and the original challenge from Barnes.

He said: “You cannot react like that – and Chelsea players have done in the past. I think the tackle by Ashley Barnes deserves a substantial ban though. It was a vile challenge on Nemanja Matic. Potentially a leg-breaker.”

This is how Oliver Kay, chief football correspondent for The Times reacted to the incident: “I thought Nemanja Matic‘s reaction was a red card reaction, there is no debate about that and there wasn’t anything the referee could do. I do think there were poor decisions yesterday (Saturday), but when Jose Mourinho reels off all his injustices about referees, I feel like it has lost its impact because he is doing it every time Chelsea lose.”

MY VERDICT: Matic deserved his straight red. But so also was Barnes who incredibly escaped with not even a caution! I expect the FA to punish the Clarets Butcher retrospectively if they have balls. And, yes, Atkinson’s failure to expel the player helped Burnley recover the lone goal deficit to earn an undeserved draw. Dare I say they nearly won it at the dearth but for Danny Ings wayward finishing after a last minute counter.

Is there a conspiracy against Chelsea? Absolutely not, even after this latest ref blunders. It is noteworthy to remember that this same Burnley side got lucky with officials which enabled them to claw their way to an undeserved 2-2 draw against Man City at the Etihad Stadium, having trailed 2-0 at some point a couple of weeks ago.
What do you say to all this, dear parliamentarians?

Like Arsenal, Liverpool were on the road, though more crucially, to fellow UCL challengers Southampton in a six-pointer. The Reds took a wonderful 3rd minute lead through Philipe Coutinho’s magnificent