2 hours ago, Davey Baby said:
This is the game that first alerted me to Taylor's bias against us, and it was 5 and a half years ago. We were playing Stoke away, under Conte ironically, and we were kicked off the park for 90 minutes, and the ref did nothing, I remember watching in incredulity. The ref just let them do what they want. As you'll see, right at the end, their player gets a second yellow and a red card, but this was with mere seconds remaining, we'd won the game, and as the commentator says, that was the fourth yellow card tackle the defender had committed.
What really stuck out was Stoke's two goals, one disallowed and the other a pen which was awarded to them. We go 1-0 up and Stoke equalise but the linesman disallows it for an obvious push on Matic which Taylor "misses". Not content, Taylor runs over to the linesman to seek clarification, something you very rarely see. The linesman explains what happened and the goal's disallowed. Not content, minutes later, Taylor awards Stoke a pen, that none of their players claimed for. This time he sees a push. Watch it yourself. It's the merest of touches, and look at Taylor's position, he's miles away.
I remember thinking at the time, this ref's a cheat.
A couple of months later, in the FA Cup final, Taylor awarded Arsenal a goal when it was a clear handball in the build-up, right in front of him. Not only that however, they have a player in an offside position who's clearly interfering with play, so much so that Courtois runs towards him thinking he's going to touch the ball. The linesman disallows the goal. What happened? Taylor runs over to the linesman, speaks to him, and gives the goal. You very rarely see a ref run over to the linesman with a view to possibly overruling him but here we see it twice in the space of 10 weeks.
For all I know, Taylor didn't officiate any Chelsea games between those two matches, so in all likelihood that's two consecutive matches where the linesman has disallowed a goal against us for clear infringements and Taylor has run over to him with a view of overruling his linesman. These are the things that get missed. People highlight the spectacular errors he makes against us, as they should, but the fact decisions in our favour are under far more scrutiny from him should also be highlighted.
Yesterday was incredible. He saw the hair-pulling. It was right in front of him. He was looking straight at it. He was five yards away, if that. It's a straight red. It's an easy decision. Instead he consults his VAR official who happens to be Mike Dean. What could possibly go wrong?
I know people might think this is paranoid or conspiratorial but in the case of Taylor it's open and shut. Since Liverpool away last season where he sent off Reece he's been much fairer in our games because he knows he's been called out, but yesterday he reverted to type and I think there's too much suspicion around him for him to be allowed to ref our games. He becomes the focus rather than the game, all trust has been eroded, and I think the authorities need to keep him well away from us from now on. Of course he can still influence our fate by refereeing our rivals and giving them favourable decisions but that's completely out of our hands. Liverpool and Utd particularly seem to do well out of him. It's in our hands to highlight his bias against us. Don't stop until something gets done.
Videos like the below need to be shared far and wide and I applaud any campaign that seeks to get him banned from our games. Enough is enough. Unfortunately the video is vertical (it's easier to watch on your phone, as you can tilt it sideways) and I'm not very technical so I'd appreciate it if anyone can make it horizontal, or maybe there's a better video on youtube that I haven't seen. None of the incidents in the game against Stoke got any coverage, because we won the game in the late stages and their player was sent off, so it looks like nothing untoward happened. However the ref cheated us for 90 minutes.
Their disallowed goal on 2mins 40secs, their pen on 4mins 20 secs, and their red card on 11mins 50 secs.
If anyones good on twitter and socials, I really think this post and video should both be circulated. Its gone beyond a joke the way he is screwing us over. It might seem like just two points, but we are already playing catchup now. not to mention we would be 3 points above spurs instead of being level. Not to mention the sheer efforts of the fans and players who deserve to celebrate yesterday.