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Thomas Tuchel explains his anger towards the referee in Chelsea win

Thomas Tuchel has justified his anger towards referee Martin Atkinson following Chelsea’s 3-1 victory over Southampton.

The Blues got the job done at Stamford Bridge but needed late goals from Timo Werner and Ben Chilwell to hand them the spoils. Tuchel was celebrating early thanks to Trevor Chalobah. The 22-year-old headed home a ninth-minute opener after being left unmarked from a corner.

Chelsea put the ball in the back of the net twice more before half-time but had both goals ruled out.

Romelu Lukaku was offside for his strike, whereas Timo Werner was more harshly treated.

The German thought he had bagged his first league goal of the season in the 41st minute. But it was not to be as Atkinson chalked it off for a foul on Kyle Walker-Peters in the build up.

In the second half, the returning Ben Chilwell fouled Tino Livramento to award Saints a penalty.

James Ward-Prowse dispatched to make it 1-1 with 61 minutes gone. He was then shown a red card for a dangerous tackle on Jorginho.

Werner finally got his goal in the 84th minute by finishing off a great move. Chilwell joined him on the scoresheet with a powerful left-footed effort.

At full-time, Tuchel told BBC Radio 5 Live:  “After two defeats we had to be careful that we didn’t start being too sad or too worried because there was a chance to be on 16 points.

“It was important to have a better performance than the last two games, that we sharpened our mindset so that we are not afraid to lose. It was nice to play the way we did and get a deserved win.”

On Werner’s disallowed goal, he continued: “I was very angry because I could never believe this could happen in the Premier League where you would go back to a 50/50 that wasn’t even in close connection to the goal.

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“I understood before the season that we didn’t want soft touches, that we wanted a contact game.

“We are here today in the middle of London in the rain in an intense game but the ref disallowed the goal.”

On the red card, he added: “I did not even see it properly but it looked heavy and it wasn’t necessary to take that kind of risk.”

Tuchel fails to see connection

In a separate interview with BBC Match of the Day, Tuchel elaborated on his stance over the disallowed goal.

“Is it really about time or is it about situations?” he said. “It’s more about where it is, do you have a chance, can you re-group? I [made] no connection from this challenge to the goal. I thought they were checking Romelu’s header from when they landed.

“The connection for me was not clear enough that from the challenge we get the possibility to score.

“The referee must have the freedom to let it go if he decides to have a fair, physical game. This is one of the challenges and I understood before the season it would be like this.”

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