Pardew upset with Luiz ´escape´

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas agreed that luck was on his side in their 3-0 win at Newcastle United on Saturday.

Villas-Boas’ side travelled to Newcastle with just two wins in their last seven matches in all competitions but they enjoyed some early fortune when defender David Luiz was only given a yellow card for bringing down Demba Ba in the first five minutes.

Luiz was the last man and appeared certain to be sent off, only for referee Mike Dean to show the Brazilian a yellow card instead.

“We have been treated unfairly for quite some time as well,” Villas-Boas said after the match.

“Today, maybe the decision fell our way. So, it was his (the referee) decision, I have to respect it.”

Despite Frank Lampard having an early penalty saved by the excellent Tim Krul, Chelsea went into half-time ahead thanks to Didier Drogba’s 38th minute header.

They were lucky to see Newcastle hit the woodwork several times, before late goals to Salomon Kalou and Daniel Sturridge wrapped up a ‘massive win’ for Chelsea.

“It is a win that nobody was expecting, so it is a big, massive win,” Villas-Boas said.

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew was understandably baffled at Dean’s early decision.

“I thought he (Luiz) was going to get sent off,” Pardew said.

“It was the fourth minute of the game but it doesn’t really matter when it happened. He was in on goal, he was behind Luiz and the goalkeeper wasn’t going to get to the ball.”

“Therefore it was a goal-scoring opportunity and he brought him down. I could not understand why he didn’t send him off. I was quite angry about it because if that happened at Old Trafford to one of my players they would have walked and I thought he would have walked.”

“If you have got a goal-scoring opportunity and the defender brings you down from behind you go off. There was no man covering so I don’t understand.”

Pardew still took time to praise his players for their ‘terrific’ attitude and he was especially delighted with goalkeeper Krul.

“You have to feel for one or two of our players, not least Tim Krul who was absolutely brilliant and the penalty save was fantastic.”