“The Chelsea thing destroyed Cardiff”

Chelsea controversy that still rankles

By Tom Coleman

Wednesday 7th October 2020


Despite everything, Cardiff took their battle to avoid relegation right down to the wire. They were beating Chelsea 1-0 and seemingly on the way to three crucial points. But a controversial goal from Cesar Azpilicueta proved their undoing, with Warnock still believing that was the strike that relegated his side.

Azpilicueta equalised in the 84th minute for Chelsea with a header, though was shown on the replays to be yards offside when he put the ball into the net.

And although there was nothing wrong with Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s injury time winner, Cardiff felt cheated. There was no way Azpilicueta’s leveller should have stood — but assistant referee Eddie Smart kept his flag down.




NEIL WARNOCK:


“The best league in the worst and the worst referees,” Warnock told the TV cameras afterwards, still seething.

The final whistle brought a chorus of boos around Cardiff City Stadium as Warnock — before his stare-off with Pawson — argued with Azpilicueta and Chelsea’s David Luiz.




“Roll on VAR,” was another Warnock quote from that day.

"So many things disappointed me in that league,” Warnock says, looking back.

“The Chelsea thing destroyed us, we didn't deserve that. I will never forget the dressing room after that game. I remember saying to Kevin Blackwell and Ronnie Jepson: 'That's us done, now'.

“I doubted whether the players would be able to recover from it because we were five points adrift and we would have been two points adrift with some good games coming up.

"And we deserved to beat Chelsea, I didn't think they were in it.”


Under VAR rules, Cesar Azpilicueta's goal for Chelsea against Cardiff City would not have stood and the Bluebirds could have stayed up

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

After chelsea we had Fulham away that's what cost us! the tactics were totally wrong playing for a draw hoping to snatch a win was terrible tactics..... took until 80mins 1 down before he decided to attack them to little to late? They were there for the taking but he failed to take a chance knowing a win could keep us up knowing Brighton's last couple games were extremely difficult..

A better manager would have been able to lift the players' spirits.

After chelsea we had Fulham away that's what cost us! the tactics were totally wrong playing for a draw hoping to snatch a win was terrible tactics..... took until 80mins 1 down before he decided to attack them to little to late? They were there for the taking but he failed to take a chance knowing a win could keep us up knowing Brighton's last couple games were extremely difficult..

I agree the Chelsea result didn't help but Warnocks tactics at Fulham was the final nail in the coffin and probably cost us our place in the premier league. Fulham were rubbish that season their defence was shit but we went and defended

After chelsea we had Fulham away that's what cost us! the tactics were totally wrong playing for a draw hoping to snatch a win was terrible tactics..... took until 80mins 1 down before he decided to attack them to little to late? They were there for the taking but he failed to take a chance knowing a win could keep us up knowing Brighton's last couple games were extremely difficult..

I agree the Chelsea result didn't help but Warnocks tactics at Fulham was the final nail in the coffin and probably cost us our place in the premier league. Fulham were rubbish that season their defence was shit but we went and defended

Yes Chelsea didn't help but we had chance to correct things after them.....as it turned out Brightons results went as planned they lost !..... Fulham were crap and if we'd gone for win I've no doubts we would have won
but NW chose to play safe unfortunately he failed but a win would have made us safe at the end as it turned out...

Agree the negative tactics did us at Fulham. As someone who went up and looking for a win, I could not believe how negative we were with a team relegated. . We only played when Fulham scored. Warnock was never the same in my eyes after that game. I still believe if we had won that game we had stayed up.

Chelsea game certainly a low in the season and one that was out of our hands, thanks to the ineptitude of one or more match officials on the day; but not 'the' defining moment

I agree with a poster above, who states that the Fulham (away) game was a bigger factor and showed that maybe our manager (as much as I admire him for what he did for us) maybe just didn't have the top league nouse that we hoped he would; even against a team destined for relegation a long time before we were...

After chelsea we had Fulham away that's what cost us! the tactics were totally wrong playing for a draw hoping to snatch a win was terrible tactics..... took until 80mins 1 down before he decided to attack them to little to late? They were there for the taking but he failed to take a chance knowing a win could keep us up knowing Brighton's last couple games were extremely difficult..

I agree the Chelsea result didn't help but Warnocks tactics at Fulham was the final nail in the coffin and probably cost us our place in the premier league. Fulham were rubbish that season their defence was shit but we went and defended

What happened in that Chelsea game was a disgrace but NW going on about it doesn't change how the team were managed throughout the rest of the season. Fulham was a fantastic opportunity to go and win the game as Fulham had the worst defensive record in the league that season but NW parked the bus until they scored.

Worse than that you could go back to a couple of games in August against Huddersfield and Newcastle where we were playing against 10 men for more than 30 minutes and failed to score in both.

In the January against Huddersfield at home not only did we fail to score but we failed to record a single effort on target. Despite having both Bobby Ried & Josh Murphy on the bench NW decided to replace NML with Rhys Healey. Why did we buy BR & JM?. Huddersfield had the 2nd worst defence and the weakest attack but NW had exactly the same approach as Fulham away.

Yes the Chelsea thing was terrible but for me those 3 games I just mentioned and Fulham away were the reason we were ultimately relegated.

I think the point about the Fulham game is well made.

However the Chelsea game becoming an iconic injustice that summed up our relegation isn’t surprising. It was such a Joe Jordan-esque outrage it was bound to become legendary.

After chelsea we had Fulham away that's what cost us! the tactics were totally wrong playing for a draw hoping to snatch a win was terrible tactics..... took until 80mins 1 down before he decided to attack them to little to late? They were there for the taking but he failed to take a chance knowing a win could keep us up knowing Brighton's last couple games were extremely difficult..

I agree the Chelsea result didn't help but Warnocks tactics at Fulham was the final nail in the coffin and probably cost us our place in the premier league. Fulham were rubbish that season their defence was shit but we went and defended

I was there that day at Fulham and we only decided to attack in the last ten minutes I agree Fulham where there for the taking we should have gone for them right from the start