Liam Rosenior has hit out at referee Paul Tierney after he stood in the middle of Chelsea’s pre-match huddle before their 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday.

Chelsea have suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time under Liam Rosenior as Anthony Gordon’s first-half goal sealed the win for Newcastle at Stamford Bridge.

Rosenior’s side were also at the centre of a bizarre moment before kick-off as Tierney stood next to the match ball while Chelsea formed their pre-match huddle around the official.

After Chelsea’s defeat, Rosenior accused Tierney of giving too much focus on his players’ pre-game ritual and criticised the referee for his failure to award a penalty when Nick Woltemade caught Cole Palmer inside Newcastle’s box.

‘I’m disappointed. There’s more focus and emphasis on the things that don’t matter,’ Rosenior said when asked about the incident involving Tierney.

‘I’m going to make it really clear. I want to protect my players. I’m respectful to the game. My players made the decision that they wanted to be around the ball, to respect the ball and show unity and leadership. That is not my decision. That was a decision between the leadership group and the team. There is nothing that they’re doing with that huddle that is disrespectful to the opposition.

‘We had a meeting with the referee, my assistant goes in, the first thing he talks about is our huddle. He says about when I complained about Arsenal being in our half. It wasn’t the goalkeeper coach that was in our half. People were at that game Arsenal, I said what I said. We’re not being disrespectful to the opposition.

‘If Paul had focused more on his job, which was to make the right decision, we have a penalty today. I don’t think anybody in this room can say that Woltemade doesn’t kick Cole Palmer down in the box.

‘So, let’s focus on the things that are important. My team showing unity is not as important as getting the decisions right on the pitch.’

Asked if Chelsea will look to alter the huddle to avoid a repeat situation, Rosenior replied: ‘Yes, I’ll be honest, I didn’t speak to Paul today or his officials. I thought it wasn’t the right thing to do today.

‘But I’ll be speaking to PGMOL. I’ll be speaking to the refs and just trying to get an understanding of why that happened today.’

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