Chelsea had to settle for a draw with Aston Villa tonight as they threw away a 1-0 lead at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues were looking to bounce back from a disappointing Boxing Day defeat to Arsenal when they took on in-form Villa in the capital.
Lampard made six changes to the side from that loss at the Emirates and one of those, Olivier Giroud, had Chelsea 1-0 up at half-time when he headed in Ben Chilwell’s cross.
But Villa responded after the break when Anwar El Ghazi made it five goals in his last five by turning home Matty Cash’s right-wing cross and seal a 1-1 draw.
Chelsea fans were unhappy in the build-up to that goal, with Jack Grealish and Andreas Christensen involved in a clash moments before when the pair collided and Christensen stayed on the ground as Villa broke and scored.
Despite fans’ protests, former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg believes the man in the middle for tonight’s game, Stuart Attwell, got the call right.
“Jack Grealish plays it off with his right foot and Christensen comes across and tries to block him,” Clattenburg said on Amazon Prime’s coverage of the game.
“Grealish does catch him with his left foot, but Christensen also catches Grealish, I think both of them come together, therefore, play on.
“Villa score as well, but at the end of the day, playing on is probably the best result.”
Clattenburg also explained why VAR didn’t go back to look at the incident – because play had ‘reset’ following Antonio Rudiger’s partial clearance.
“It’s one of those that is very subjective,” he said. “But what you do say, after the ball is played off by Grealish, the ball then goes inside the penalty area and then what happens is, it gets reset because what Rudiger does, he goes to clear the ball.
“The ball goes inside the area by El Ghazi, and then at this point, the clearance from Rudiger means VAR doesn’t look at the incident because it’s now reset. The VAR won’t get involved.”
Former Chelsea midfielder, and Amazon Prime pundit, Andy Townsend agreed with Clattenburg.
“I wasn’t convinced it was a foul, no,” he said. “Grealish was in possession of the ball and maybe overruns it slightly, but I don’t think so.
“He’s looking to find the player on the overlap there, I think both players are dangling a leg. You can argue that Grealish throws his leg a bit. Personally, not enough for me, nope.”
