Chelsea and Manchester United played out to a disappointing stalemate at Stamford Bridge after both the teams failed to find anything productive from movements in the final third.
A quarter half into the match saw Marcus Rashford’s force Mendy to punch the ball make a save, which then found its way onto the path of Mason Greenwood & Callum Hudson-Odoi. The ball appeared to touch the hands of both the players, forcing referee Stuart Atwell to head to the touchline in order to investigate proceedings.
After much talk on the sidelines by both the managers, players and the match official himself, Atwell decided to not to award a penalty to United – forcing a restart from a drop ball.
Chelsea boss Tuchel spoke to Sky Sports after the match, in quotes picked up by football.london, and questioned the reliability of the officials’ decisions to stop the game –
“How can this be an intervention? The player in red plays the ball with his hand and then we are checking for a penalty. Why does the referee have to see this? You watch it for one second on the pad, or you watch it on the field live and then I see it on the pad, why does the referee need to see this?”
Tuchel backed Atwell’s decision but was understandably disappointed after the ball seemed to have struck Mason Greenwood’s hand first –
“He does everything right, I don’t understand why he needs to check it but I’m glad it’s no penalty because that would be even worse.”
