Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has a column on CaughtOffside looking back at the weekend’s refereeing decisions, and inevitably this time his focus was on Super Sunday’s big Chelsea – Manchester United game.
Late on in the match Cristiano Ronaldo sprinted from the halfway line, and was only stopped by a well timed Thiago Silva challenge, with the ball going out for a dangerous late corner.
Thomas Tuchel was incensed by this, because Ronaldo was clearly offside at the start of this move – right in front of the Chelsea boss, to make things worse. He went off at the referee and fourth official, and was booked shortly after.
Halsey admitted that the decision was wrong – but also that Tuchel was wrong to lose his rag:
“I cannot condone Thomas Tuchel’s furious actions prior to his yellow card in yesterday’s game with Manchester United, but I could understand his frustrations.
Nunn should have spotted Ronaldo was clearly offside and he made two mistakes.
One, Ronaldo was two yards off and then two by not raising his flag when the attack came to a suitable end.”
Oh well. To be honest, a yellow card for a manager is pretty meaningless in the final minutes, unless they’re intending to get another. What was worse was the way it ate up the remaining time on the clock.
