Chelsea have their first win under Frank Lampard, managing to squeeze out a 3-2 win over Norwich at Carrow Road.
It was no thanks to the referee however, with Martin Atkinson making himself extremely unpopular with some truly odd calls, not helped by an erratic VAR performance that overruled a Chelsea goal, awarded us a tight offside, then ignored a bad stamp from Ben Godfrey.
As you can imagine, fans on social media went increasingly ballistic.
You can see a tiny sliver of the reaction here:
The referee is against Chelsea paaa
— St Wizzy (@StWizzy2) August 24, 2019
This referee has been terrible , bloody hell fuck me
— Cner (@cner_CFC) August 24, 2019
https://twitter.com/rapistronaldo/status/1165245754144935937
Yet another shocking referee performance against Chelsea #NORCHE
— Coffee Stained Clogs (@ReeceLewisFigo) August 24, 2019
Martin Atkinson is to Chelsea as Howard Webb was to Manchester United. The moment I saw that he was the referee for the FA cup SF in 2017 I knew we were f*cked.
— Don Adriano (@AJG8919) August 24, 2019
https://twitter.com/hanko_88/status/1165252629464780800
The FA when a referee wants to give Chelsea a penalty… https://t.co/hF6R7HmKg9
— Uber Chelsea FC (@UberChelseaFC_) August 24, 2019
Is that not the very definition of Climbing?
These refs been favouring Norwich all game today
— NiiNiiFC-BlueLionsTV (@NiiNiiFC) August 24, 2019
Atkinson being Atkinson. Not even VAR can change that.
— Chelsea Rumours (@ChelseaRumours) August 24, 2019
Atkinson falls for the obvious dive. Maybe try a bit, Martin?
— Dávid Pásztor (@D_Peezy) August 24, 2019
How is that a foul? Zouma has the ball in the back of the net, but it’s not given due to a foul from Giroud in the build-up.
— TweetChelseaUK (@TweetChelseaUK) August 24, 2019
https://twitter.com/CarefreeYouth/status/1165252287759114240
BREAKING: You can now kick people in the box without giving away a pen, and stamp on people without being sent off… #VAR
— Jake Humphrey (@mrjakehumphrey) August 24, 2019
https://twitter.com/CarefreeYouth/status/1165251373631508480
These refs have been utterly disgraceful today.
Stamped their mark on the game for all the wrong reasons
— NiiNiiFC-BlueLionsTV (@NiiNiiFC) August 24, 2019
Godfrey getting away with stepping Mount is a good summation of Atkinson’s day. #cfc #norche
— Brandon (@bbbusbee) August 24, 2019
https://twitter.com/JimmyFunnellCFC/status/1165250951655186432
VAR has not been #cfc's friend today
— Simon Johnson (@SJohnsonSport) August 24, 2019
Err, that looked very intentional from Godfrey. Nasty.
— Chelsea Rumours (@ChelseaRumours) August 24, 2019