LONDON — Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior has said a «handball» in the build up to Leeds United‘s equaliser affected his players negatively as they let a two-goal lead slip at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
Chelsea were sitting pretty in the game after a first-half strike from João Pedro and a second-half Cole Palmer penalty put them in control going into the final half hour.
The game then flipped on its head as Chelsea conceded twice in the space of five minutes with Lukas Nmecha converting from the spot before substitute Noah Okafor secured a point for the travelling side.
It was Okafor’s equaliser that Rosenior voiced his opposition to, citing an alleged «handball» involving Jayden Bogle in the scramble that preceded Okafor tucking into an empty net.
«The lad [Bogle] handballs it,» Rosenior told a news conference on Tuesday night. «He handballs it, it affects my players in that moment, they think it’s a handball, we switch off, we don’t clear the ball, they score.
«Then for 25 minutes after that it was wave after wave of attack, we have to just make sure we take care of moments and be professional.
«You’re always going to have a spell in the game where you’re not top, the ridiculous thing for us is that they’ve managed to score two goals in a five-minute period, when for the other 90 minutes of the game, we were by far the better team.»
Chelsea’s domination in the game was evident in the fact that Leeds failed to register a shot on target until their second-half penalty, with many inside Stamford Bridge unable to believe what they were seeing as the two-goal lead slipped away.
«Genuinely, I can’t remember Leeds having a shot or moment in the game [prior to Nmecha’s goal],» Rosenior added. «Some of our football in possession, in press, in energy, was everything that I wanted to see and that makes it even more of a bitter pill to swallow that we lost the game.
«I was frustrated after the second goal with a couple of things that I’ll show the players on why the momentum of the game changed. That’s a team thing.
«If we can just focus and concentrate for 90 minutes, this team has unbelievable potential, which you saw for probably 90% of the game today.
«I’m a month in, I feel like I already know what we need to work on to improve that. It’s making sure we get the time to do it.»
