I'm sure everyone at the match was hoping to see Fernando Torres, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Dirk Kuyt and other big names in the Premiership all playing in one of the most exciting matches at the beginning of the season. Fernando Torres scored the 6,999th league goal for Liverpool, while John Riise and Didier Drogba both created some brilliant attempts on goal. The match was supposedly full of excitement and fun. (Image from BBC Sport)But the referee, Rob Styles had to get in the way.
The ref flashed his yellow cards eight times during the match, but failed to sent off Michael Essien after giving him his second yellow card. But the worst refereeing decision came when he decided to award Chelsea a penalty when he ruled Liverpool defender Steve Finnan fouled Florent Malouda.
Despite protest from the players and the manager, the decision remained unchanged, and Frank Lampard leveled for Chelsea with that penalty, which resulted in the match ended 1-1.
Premiership matches are usually full of these bad-refereeing cases. While some are just frustration of losing teams and managers, the incident between Rob Styles and Liverpool is not one of them. Referees' chief of the Premiership, Keith Hackett announced that Rob Styles will not officiate in the Premiership next weekend because of his mistake. Ha!
However, that penalty might not be as damaging to the referee since he will probably return to the pitch after next week; a two-point lost for Liverpool might hamper the team's hope in getting their first Premiership title.
Nonetheless...
Rob Styles, you FAILED! Image from TheFA.com
