WWE Ref Bodyslams United's Title Bid

Chelsea 2 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Chelsea: Luiz (54), Lampard (pen 79)
Manchester United: Rooney (30)

Red Card: Vidic (90)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Smalling, O'Shea, Evra (Fabio 81), Carrick, Fletcher, Scholes (Giggs 70), Nani, Rooney, Hernandez (Berbatov 70)

To say I'm miffed is a gross understatement. Like Ferguson, I'm fuming mad. Instead of running away with the title, we're now stuck in a dogfight and serverely handicapped by a referee who is more worthless than Rob Styles. At this level of the game, it's shocking that a referee can influence a game this badly and subsequently the outcome of a season.

Martin Atkinson decision not to send David Luiz off, not once, not twice but thrice, was shameful and dastardly. Eventually his decision, or non-decision, resulted in the equalizer scored by Luiz, of course. To compound matters, He gave away a ridiculously soft penalty. Zhirkov ran into Smalling and was rewarded with a spot kick that sealed United's fate.

Against such odds, it was almost impossible to come away with anything from a game like this. But Atkinson wasn't finished with his destruction of United. He produced a diabolical red card to Vidic as the game ended to ensure a tough match up at Anfield over the weekend.

I've seen some piss poor refereeing in my 30 odd years of watching football, but this has to rank up there as probably one of the worst ever. Even the notoriously poor refereeing in the WWE and NBA can't be as blatant as this.

This was one of the rare games that we actually played rather well away from Old Trafford. It's a shame the referee had to spoil it. Of course the conspiracist theorist in me feels that this goes beyond the referee and a larger agenda at work. In part this is also probably a payback for the elbow that Rooney got away with in the midweek where he was lucky not to receive a red.

All that matters now is to look forward to Anfield this weekend. It's going to be tough without Vidic, Rio or even Evans. Looks like we'd be having some problems fielding someone to partner Smalling. Maybe Wes Brown might finally get a look in.

Last but not least, curse you Martin Atkinson!