Chelsea huddle: Blues boss Liam Rosenior blasts referee Paul Tierney over bizarre incident

Liam Rosenior has criticised Paul Tierney after a bizarre incident before Chelsea's 1-0 defeat to Newcastle which saw the referee end up in the middle of the Blues' pre-match huddle.

Under Rosenior, Chelsea's players have chosen to do their pre-match huddle around the ball on the centre spot. But prior to the game against Newcastle, there was an unexpected guest right in the middle of them.

There were bemused looks on Chelsea faces as Cole Palmer wrapped his arms around Tierney, who smiled back at the England international.

Tierney then remained in the middle of the Chelsea players until they broke their huddle, with Wesley Fofana another to give the official a quizzical look.

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Rosenior, who revealed Tierney had brought up the huddle in a pre-match chat with his assistant, was asked about the incident after the game and was critial of the referee, who he felt should have awarded Chelsea a penalty for Nick Woltemade's challenge on Palmer, saying he would seek talks with PGMO.

"I'm disappointed," Rosenior said. "There's more focus and emphasis on the things that don't matter.

"I'm going to make it really clear. I want to protect my players. I'm respectful to the game. My players made the decision that they wanted to be around the ball, to respect the ball and show unity and leadership.

"That is not my decision. That was a decision between the leadership group and the team.

"There is nothing that they're doing with that huddle that is disrespectful to the opposition."

Rosenior added that Tierney referenced a previous incident at Arsenal, when the Chelsea boss reacted angrily to a member of the Gunners staff being in his side's half during the warm-up.

"We had a meeting with the referee, my assistant goes in, the first thing he talks about is our huddle," said Rosenior. "He says about when I complained about Arsenal being in our half, it wasn't the goalkeeper coach that was in our half.

"People were at that game at Arsenal, I said what I said. We're not being disrespectful to the opposition.

"If Paul [Tierney] had focused more on his job, which was to make the right decision, we have a penalty today. I don't think anybody in this room can say that Woltemade doesn't kick Cole Palmer down in the box.

"So let's focus on the things that are important. My team showing unity is not as important as getting the decisions right on the pitch."

On whether he spoke to Tierney after the game, Rosenior added: "I didn't speak to Paul today or his officials. I thought it wasn't the right thing to do today. But I'll be speaking to PGMO.

"I'll be speaking to the refs and just trying to get an understanding of why that happened today. We were told in the rule book it's about timing. You can be where you want on timing.

"I just want to find a solution to this because we're actually talking about something that's nowhere near as important as what's happening on the pitch."

Sky Sports News has contacted PGMO for comment.

What the pundits said on bizarre huddle incident...

Jamie Redknapp: "A lot of fans would love to have a cuddle with Cole Palmer. He's had a nice cuddle there.

To Daniel Sturridge, he added: "Hold on, you're blaming the referee, what is that? Explain the thing?

Sturridge: "I don't know why they are doing it [the huddle] there, but I also don't know why the ref is in there.

Redknapp: "There will be some modern-day thinking about, I don't know, somebody somewhere has come up with something about this giving you an advantage - to show you are strong or whatever."

(c) Sky Sports 2026: Chelsea huddle: Blues boss Liam Rosenior blasts referee Paul Tierney over bizarre incident