Di Matteo defiant after ‘bad’ decisions

Published on 29/10/2012 12:00

Roberto Di Matteo swatted away suggestions that Chelsea were set for a bout of the winter blues after their dramatic defeat by Manchester United.

The European champions’ unbeaten start to the Barclays Premier League season went up in smoke in controversial manner yesterday when they lost 3-2 at Stamford Bridge.

Manager Di Matteo gave short shrift to that prospect after his side roared back from 2-0 down yesterday before being wrongly reduced to nine men and beaten by an offside winner.

“I didn’t see any struggle in our team,” he said. “We know we have a good and strong team. We just have to ride this moment.”

Chelsea have made a formal complaint accusing referee Mark Clattenburg of using “inappropriate language” towards two of their players.

Di Matteo was also smarting about Clattenburg’s decision to show Torres a second yellow card for diving and failure to disallow United’s winner long after yesterday’s match had finished.

He said: “We are massively disappointed that these key decisions were wrong.It’s a shame, because it was a good game of football with two good teams and the officials ruined it.”

Ivanovic was sent off shortly before Torres for a last-man challenge - a decision Di Matteo also branded “harsh”.