The red was deserved, he lashed out and had to go, even if the challenge before was probably also a red. Amazed he never got a yellow at the very least...

A poor performance but we should have won even with the sending off, defenitly should have had atleast one penalty.

Oh well, its not the end of the world, we were never going to win all our remaining games, slipping up will happen. We just have to not slip up as much as Man City

Barnes was fouling our players all game; take a look at the Ivanovic and Zouma incident. Sorry, I don't buy that this was an accident at all. In all incidents he knew full well what he was doing; even if it was just a case of him leaving his boot, you only have to look at the way Matic's leg was bending as the contact was made which implies there was significant (excessive) force applied by Barnes.

Fair comment my friend.

I personally think it’s very difficult to interpret either way in fairness.

As you say it happens very fast; I’m still erring on the side of ‘unintentional’ as once his right boot has started on its trajectory a collision seems unavoidable.

Could Barnes have mitigated the impact?.....

..yes/probably/possibly/no.......take your pick!

I wonder if he'll tell us the truth.

After two days to digest the incidents of Saturday, my conclusion is

The ref was not able to competently referee the game and should be suspended.

The ref in not showing authority, allowed Barnes to continually increase the ferocity of his tackles

Matic reaction to the tackle was understandable, and it will be interesting if Chelsea appeal the card

matic is the luckiest player, out for three games instead of a potentially career ending leg break. I would have been devastated for him, and The team.

Looks like we are appealing the Matic sending off. Interesting, I didn't think we would.

Incidentally if Barnes gets a retrospective ban, Man City will benefit as one of Burnley's next three opponents.

We did not play well, Not sure if it was "Champions League Hangover" as we have suffered with that sometimes or if it was something else.

The Ref was awful but that's just the standard of ref's today. It is a hard job and yes things happen at speed but mistakes like the handball have nothing to do with speed or not seeing things they are just unacceptable mistakes at this level. Its a tough job but lots of jobs are tough but you still needed to be held to a certain level, The "They get most calls right" just cannot cut it with ones like this, They need to get the easy ones right 10/10 as that's the level they are at

That's the ridiculous thing about bans, if a player gets a red card in the 90th minute it can be worse for the opposition!

As to getting a card in a pl match keeping you out of an unrelated cup final, that's madness.

The problem I have here is that by solely blaming match officials for dropping points, Jose effectively avoids answering questions about some sub standard team performances. I think in particular the games at Southampton and Spurs. In the Saints match Chelsea failed to muster one shot on target in the second half despite having the lions share of the ball.

The other point I would make is that some of the decisions Jose claims are slam dunk are disputed by others. On commentary for instance Jonathan Pearce reckoned it would have been harsh to award the hand ball one though he did think the Diego Costa one should have been given. I am not saying Pearce is right just that many decisions are debateable.

And away from Chelsea Brendan Rogers thought the ref had a good game at St Mary's yesterday. Others including me disagreed.

This is a problem with technology. A lot of decisions are in the opinion of the ref as distinct from statements of fact.

By the same token, a team's performance should have no bearing on the standard of officiating. If we get in a scoring position (like Ivan v Burnley), or we are in a position to create a chance (Cesc vs Southampton) and player X commits a foul outside the laws of the game, then is should be punished; how we played 30, 60 or 70 minutes before that is irrelevant.

According to Jose, Atkinson didn't see any of the incidents he mentioned which only highlights how poor the standard of officiating has become. There will always be an element of judgement in decisions, but the fact that referee's don't have the capacity to see the sort of decisions they should be casting a judgement on is even worse - and that's where video technology can be a huge benefit to the game.

Thorgan Hazard has signed for Gladbach.

The FA have confirmed they are taking no action over Barnes' challenge. Why am I not surprised? It's understandable why Mourinho feels so frustrated.

What???? The incident was seen? But Jose said he spoke to Atkinson and he said that he didn't seen any of the incidents.

I would normally agree with you, but I do think Saturday's game was one of those occasions where the standard of refereeing was so bad it overshadowed everything else.
To be honest, I can't remember much else about the game myself. I thought it was two clear penalties before half time, and Burnley should have been down to ten men before the Matic incident. It was one of those (thankfully) rare occasions where the football appeared secondary to the mind-blowing incompetence of the official in charge.

I'm not surprised ether. You can bet the Matic ban will still stand though.
We go on about FIFA and Blatter, but the game stinks just as much here.

I haven't been this mad since the Aguero two-footed stamp on Luiz in the FA Cup. Since Foy "saw" the incident there was no retrospective action taken and it seems to be the same case for Matic. But when it came to Costa, of course no-one saw it and he was banned for 3 games. I'm not trying to infer there is some campaign against Chelsea but the downright incompetence of the FA is beyond a joke now. This is why video technology needs to be implemented so there can be NO doubt about what the referee saw or didn't see.

Presumably Atkinson must have said he saw the tackle and considered no action needed to be taken against Barnes ? If that's the case Atkinson should be sacked immediately. It's one thing to miss something, that's understandable. But quite another to admit that you saw a potentially career ending challenge, but came to the conclusion no action was necessary.
They can't have it all ways, either the referee didn't see it clearly and the FA should take retrospective action. Or the referee saw it and was guilty of a serious and gross error of judgement. In which case he should be disciplined at the very least.

You're speaking too much sense RichmondBlue. In an ideal world, your suggestion would be implemented but I have little hope of this materialising.

At least someone has got it right..

"Former referees' chief Keith Hackett believes Atkinson needs a rest after describing his performance in the game as 'incompetent' ".

A permanent rest I would have thought.

He has to be lying. Surely no ref should be allowed to keep their job if they say that wasn't a sending off offense.

I see that they have completely ignored the 1st one on Ivanovic which was violent conduct. Is Atkinson saying he seen that one too is he ?

Also, i thought the rules changed after that challenge from Callum McManaman ? The new rules say that even if the ref see's it the F.A can still take actions. What the hell is going on here ?

This is a disgrace and i am sick of the way we are getting treated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip-rFwIeIeg#t=1402

From 23:22 - 24:22

Jose says that Atkinson didn't see anything.

In other news, I see Thorgan Hazard has gone to Borussia Monchengladbach permanently.
We get a transfer fee of 8m Euros, but have a buy-back clause inserted as well.
I think he had been saying that he thought his chances at Chelsea were limited, and he felt unsettled on loan. So perhaps it's in everyone's best interests. If he does fulfil his promise in the future, we should be able to buy him back at a reasonable price.

If Rooney or Costa made that challenge the uproar would have been far worse and the FA would have acted!

The fa are clearly no longer fit for purpose. They are just as bad as Fifa.

They hide behind the rules when it suits them, and change them for others.

That's true. The FA have really excelled themselves with this one. Mealy-mouthed cowards is just one of the descriptions I've read about them. They really are beyond useless, a total waste of space.
If there's one good thing to come out of this, it's that even the majority of non-Chelsea fans appear to be shocked by this decision. I've been reading the readers replies on some newspaper articles online, and apart from a few confirmed Chelsea haters, most are firmly behind us on this one.
Not that it will do us much good, public loathing and contempt won't rid the game of these self-serving parasites..look at FIFA.

The fa is a closed shop, looking after its own self serving interests.

If the ref saw that and decided it wasn't even a card, then he is not fit to officiate. If he did not see it, then according to the rules it can be looked at on video.

Which is it fa? Instead they have chosen to bury their head and become yet another laughing stock.