Chelsea fans took to social media to lay into referee Anthony Taylor after he spent two seconds checking the VAR monitor before sending off Reece James.
Chelsea fans couldn’t hold in their anger as they took to social media to lay into Anthony Taylor after his brief check of VAR before sending Reece James off and awarding Liverpool a penalty in the first half.
Such is the anger of Chelsea fans as they also garnered 40,000 signatures each on two petitions calling for the referee to be banned from officiating Blues matches.
One of the petitions calling for Taylor to be stood down claims that he has been ‘constantly biased whenever he officiates a Chelsea match’ and alarmingly suggests that his removal from refereeing the team’s matches would be good for his own safety, while the other petition says. . that Chelsea fans’ mental health has been affected by Taylor’s performances.
While it is widely accepted that Taylor made the right decision to send James off and award Liverpool a penalty, given that the ball hitting the hand prevented a clear goalscoring opportunity, that hasn’t stopped Chelsea supporters from venting their fury online.
Graham Clark tweeted: ‘The bloke shouldn’t even be doing Sunday league’, while Ananthan Thenaliparambil wrote: ‘Anthony Taylor has an agenda against @ChelseaFC. What a shameless referee!! He should never be allowed to referee a Chelsea game in his life.’
Thenaliparambil went on to list the various times that he claims Taylor turned a blind eye to offences by Chelsea’s opponents in past matches, including Alexis Sanchez handling the ball in the 2017 FA Cup final and Mateo Kovacic being booked after being fouled by Dele Alli.
Miz Hadzic referenced the popular Simpsons clip of Abe walking into a room, hanging up his hat and then immediately turning around and walking straight out, tweeting it with the caption: ‘Anthony Taylor looking at the VAR monitor’, along with a laughing emoji.
Lesilo Rula wrote: ‘Anthony Taylor didn’t even watch the VAR ad. Just blinked at the screen and decided it was a penalty and a red card.’