Rio Ferdinand and Joe Cole criticised Chelsea boss Graham Potter for not controlling the narrative after their 1-1 draw against West Ham.
The Blues were denied what appeared to be a clear penalty for handball at the end of the draw at the London Stadium. Chelsea were chasing a much-needed win to kickstart their bid to get back up towards the top four when Conor Gallagher hit a low shot goalwards.
West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek was falling to his left and diverted the ball off-target with his left hand.
In his post-match interview to BT Sport, Potter commented that it “looked it” when asked if Soucek had handled the ball, before adding: “These are the little things you need to go in your favour and at the moment they are not so that’s life there is nothing to complain about.”
Pressure is growing on Potter after dropping two more points with Chelsea ninth in the Premier League after their third draw on the bounce.
And both Ferdinand and Cole were shocked that Potter didn’t use the handball incident to deflect some of the narrative away from their underwhelming performance in east London.
Ferdinand said on BT Sport: “It comes with experience, if you look at a Pep Guardiola or Klopp or Mourinho in years gone by at Chelsea, Mourinho would have been out there in the presser tomorrow and that would’ve been the story, the back page would’ve been Mourinho slams VAR and takes the focus off what happens on the pitch.
“There were some bits that you could improve on with Chelsea but that would not be the focus, it probably will be now… the influx of players, the money spent but you can negate that by controlling the narrative in that presser there.”
Cole added: “If he had someone in his staff who has been at that level and managed at that level… you need to cause a bit of an uproar because it does two things.
“It deflects from the bad elements of your performance but it puts it on VAR. It cost Chelsea a chance of winning the game there through no fault of your own.
“You can dissect the performance of your team on Monday morning but if I was advising him now I’d say come out and make a thing of it.
“Make the Chelsea fans come out of here thinking you’re hard done by, instead of feeling why didn’t we beat West Ham. That’s a little bit of inexperience.”
READ MORE: Chelsea have the raw ingredients but there will be no quick fix for Graham Potter
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