09 December 2023 , 22:30
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Furious Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino has declared it's one rule for one and one for another in the Premier League.
The Argentine is referring to an incident from the midweek 2-1 defeat at Manchester United - in which he believes his former player Luke Shaw should have been given his marching orders.
Shaw was already cautioned when he kicked the ball away early in the second-half after conceding a throw-in on the near touchline. Pochettino is adamant it was worthy of a second booking and could have changed the course of proceedings at Old Trafford.
The contest was the first time Chelsea had not received a single card in a Premier League match this season but when discussing the subject of the Blues' discipline, Pochettino said passionately: "But be fair. Luke Shaw should have been sent off on 47 or 48 minutes. Without Conor Gallagher, we played 60 minutes against Brighton with one less.
"I invite you to watch the game from the start of the second half. After two minutes, with Luke Shaw already on a yellow card - he’s going to kill me, because he was my player - there’s a foul and he kicked the ball out and it’s not a yellow card.
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"The rules apply for one person but for another, no. It is true or not? No-one has said anything about it. I don’t know what happened against us. We feel that we have been treated a little bit unfairly. We were controlling the game in the second half. We finished the first half really well, scoring the goal.
Mauricio Pochettino's Chelsea side have earned the second most yellow cards in the Premier League (Getty Images)"Then for sure, if that happens, a fair decision, for sure now we are talking about progress, talking in a different way, ‘we are so good’, ‘we are close to the top four or top five’. Look how football changes when you cannot control the situation. And that was a really unfair situation for us."
Darwin Nunez was booked for Liverpool in Wednesday's 1-0 win at Sheffield United for kicking the ball away - something that was later cited by Pochettino. The Chelsea tactician recently showed his players extensive video footage of the needless yellow cards they have collected this season in a bid to stamp out silly cautions.
The Blues have received the second most yellow cards (47) in the Premier League. Only Sheffield United have more.