Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca made a big claim about refereeing as the Blues suffered a 2-1 defeat against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, October 20. The Italian claimed that referee John Brooks's decisions were influenced by the Anfield crowd.
Chelsea did really well against Arne Slot's side as they had 58% possession and took 12 shots in total compared to Liverpool's nine. However, the Reds managed to secure all three points to reclaim their top spot in the table.
Mohamed Salah (29' P) and Curtis Jones (51') found the back of the net for the Merseyside giants while Nicolas Jackson (48') scored for the visitors. However, the referee made several controversial decisions throughout the game with both sides feeling aggrieved on occasion.
Following the game, Enzo Maresca questioned the referee for his decisions insisting that he was influenced by the Anfield crowd. The Chelsea manager told Sky Sports, as quoted by Liverpool.com.
"I didn't see anything in terms of decisions from the referee. The only thing I can say that sometimes in this stadium some decisions are for the noise of the crowd. The only thing I can say is the referee is there to make decisions."
Maresca added:
"Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are wrong. Sometimes it is because of the noise [of the crowd], but overall I think they did OK."
With their victory against Chelsea, Liverpool sit pretty at the top of the table with 21 points, whereas the Blues find themselves in sixth place with 14 points.
Arne Slot heaps praise on Liverpool star for controlling Chelsea's key creator
Liverpool manager Arne Slot singled out Curtis Jones for praise after his side's 2-1 win against Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday. Jones started in the middle of the park for the Reds ahead of Alexis Mac Allister and played a decisive role in the victory.
Jones won a penalty which was converted by Mohamed Salah while scoring the eventual winner after Nicolas Jackson's equalizer. Slot hailed Jones for playing a key role in the victory and keeping Cole Palmer at bay. The Dutchman said, as quoted by Metro:
“He was very good. Very good individual performance. I think the whole team worked very hard. Curtis had a difficult job, he had to control Cole Palmer, which is not easy because this player has some quality."
He added:
"It’s a team effort but Curtis was mostly responsible for that. He did that really well and he added some really important moments to it. He was two times involved in penalties and score the goal so he was, in both parts of the pitch, very important for us."
Jones came through the youth ranks of Liverpool and has made 140 appearances for his boyhood club to date. He has scored 17 goals and provided 15 assists so far while winning six trophies.