Anthony Taylor won’t be receiving many Christmas cards from Chelsea supporters this season.The referee isn’t a popular figure in west London right now after his performance in the Blues’ FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal.Taylor sent Mateo Kovacic off in the second half, with his second yellow card coming rather undeservedly, and it’s not the first time the 41-year-old has hindered Chelsea in a cup final.Three years ago he sent Victor Moses off as Chelsea were beaten by Arsenal at Wembley Stadium.Taylor’s name was trending on Twitter and you would have been scrolling for a very long time before you found a single positive tweet about the official.
And if you do search ‘Anthony Taylor’ on Twitter, you’ll likely stumble across a Chelsea fan’s rant that has gone viral on the site.Blues’ supporter Tom Overend claims to be sending a message to Taylor and the FA, but it’s more of a rebuke.“Anthony Taylor, you are a disgrace,” he begins.Overend goes on to complain about the fouls Arsenal were awarded but Chelsea weren’t, Kovacic’s sending off and Emiliano Martinez’s ‘handball’ outside the area which went unnoticed.
“We did not have the chance to have 25 minutes to get back into that game because of Anthony Taylor ruining the game for not even a red card offence,” he continues.Check it out below.
That’s one angry fan.
The reference to Tom Henning Ovrebo is, of course, a reminder of the 2009 Champions League semi-final, in which Norwegian official Ovrebo made a string of errors as Chelsea crashed out at the hands of Barcelona.
Yet despite the fans’ unrest, Chelsea boss Frank Lampard wasn’t ready to put the blame on anyone else for the defeat.
“We got complacent, took time on the ball like it was a stroll," Lampard told BBC One.
"We didn't play well enough to win a final. A lot of today is on us."
Lampard added: “We started well for 10-15 minutes and we can only blame ourselves from that point.”