Reason Chris Sutton wants Chelsea manager banned
BBC pundit, Chris Sutton has called for Mauricio Pochettino to be banned after his behaviour during Chelsea’s 4-4 draw with Manchester City on Sunday.
The game at Stamford Bridge was a keenly-contested affair that saw both sides come from behind to lead on different occasions, before a late Cole Palmer penalty settled the scores at 4-4.
It was a match that saw a number of controversial decisions from the referees, including a first-half penalty to Manchester City after Marc Cucurella was unfairly adjudged to have fouled Erling Haaland despite a VAR review.
Chelsea also seemed to be breaking away to score a fifth goal in the last minute of added time when centre referee, Anthony Taylor blew the final whistle. The decision didn’t sit well with Pochettino, who immediately stormed into the pitch to confront the ref before he was held back by his coaching staff.
Poch was also shown a yellow card by Taylor for the behaviour for which he apologised during his post-match interview. However, Sutton insists the Chelsea boss should be banned to make an example to others.
He said on the It’s All Kicking Off podcast: “I think this season has seemed worse than ever in terms of Premier League managers attacking referees, there are a lot of issues with VAR and a lot of decisions have been questionable this season, but the reaction of Premier League managers have been over the top.
“The biggest thing is that further down the chain – so Pochettino shouting in a fourth official’s face – that will have consequences down the leagues because people will think it’s the norm if Pochettino is a good guy, if he can do that, that’s the norm.
“It will have a knock on effect and you think grassroots referees, there are cases of them being attacked or verbally abused, so Premier League managers have a great responsibility and there is a line, and many have crossed it this season.
“Really there needs to be severe bans on Premier League managers behaving in that manner, simply because of the effect it will have on referees further down the chain.”
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