Chelsea lodge complaint over ref Clattenburg

Chelsea have lodged an official complaint to the Premier League claiming Mark Clattenburg, who refereed their 3-2 defeat against Manchester United, used inappropriate language towards two of their players.

Clattenburg, 37, made a string of controversial decisions during the match, including allowing Javier Hernandez’s winning goal to stand even though it was offside — and sending off Fernando Torres for diving although video evidence showed the Spaniard was clearly caught by United defender Jonny Evans. However, Chelsea’s post-match allegations are far more serious and, if proved, will send further shockwaves through a sport that has still not recovered from the high-profile case of John Terry, who was accused of racially abusing QPR’s Anton Ferdinand on the pitch at Loftus Road last year.

Terry was in the stands for yesterday’s match, serving a four-match suspension handed out by the FA, but — on a day when the rest of his team wore t-shirts in support of the Kick It Out, One Game, One Community ant-racism campaign — Chelsea claim their players are the victims this time.