Leicester City Boss Criticises Referee After Home Defeat To Chelsea

Leicester City boss Steve Cooper was highly critical of referee Andrew Madley after his side’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea.

He thought they should have had a penalty late on at 2-0 when Levi Colwill appeared to bring down Stephy Mavididi – but it was not given.

They were awarded a penalty by the video assistant referee (VAR) in injury time when Romeo Lavia caught Bobby de Cordova-Reid.

Madley did not give it initially as he thought the Leicester player was offside – but VAR ruled he was onside.

“He gave offside for the second one and he was about half a yard on,” Cooper told BBC Sport.

“We’ve had a lot of bad luck with this referee this year. It’s our third or fourth game with him and it’s not been the best of times. It continued today.

“The last thing [referees’ body] PGMOL needed was that performance. He’s got some big decisions massively wrong and in general a couple of advantages he blew up.

“I don’t know if he lost concentration or composure but it’s not what the referees needed in the first game live on TV [after the international break].

“It’s a pity. It’s going to be all the talking points. I’m disappointed it’s us on the wrong end of it.”

Cooper added later: “Maybe officially we need to speak to whoever we’ve got to speak to.”

Earlier on Saturday, the Premier League said on-field accuracy of decisions has improved from 82% after 11 games last season to 89% this campaign.

A Key Match Incident Panel ruled that there were only three VAR errors in that time, compared to 16 last season.

It added the average VAR delay in matches is down from 64 seconds to 36 seconds.