Chelsea Reaction: Bruce bemoans harsh decisions

The Latics had key changes to win the game and following Olivier Kapo's equaliser late in the second half it looked like Steve Bruce's men would come away with a point.

However it was not to be as the hand of Lampard edged the jumping Melchiot under the ball before the Chelsea midfielder scored the winner.

Another example of the smaller clubs getting nothing away at the so called big four.

Here is the reaction of the two managers.

Steve Bruce

Frank (Lampard) had hand in Melchiot's back, and as he turns round he gives him a nudge and gets his head onto it to score. I've seen the replay and I feel it's obvious the referee got it wrong and unfortunately it's gone against us.

The one thing I do question is why you don't seem to get certain decisions in the big games on the big stage.

The referee needs to be strong and give what he sees and not get influenced. But these kinds of things seem to happen a lot and it's very frustrating and disappointing."

I thought we absolutely deserved to get something from the game. We played very, very well despite having a few injuries, but we kept at it and maybe with a bit of luck we could, and should, have got something from the game.

Guus Hiddink

I am glad that it's an 'if' [we had drawn] and not a fact. We reacted very well after the equaliser and we started well. Playing after Wednesday on the European level, it is always difficult to get into the next game.

Also playing Wigan, they deserve a lot of respect, they're a hard working team off the ball, but also on the ball they played very decent football and they can cause many teams a lot of problems, which they did.

They made this equaliser but the reaction of the team after that was good to go for the win and we got it in the 90th minute. I'm satisfied with the attitude of the whole team, the leading guys, they stood up and reacted and that is good to see.

The table

Latest match Saturday, 28th February 2009		Pld		Home						Away						Overall						Pts	GD
				W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A
1	Manchester United	26		12	1	0	30	5		7	4	2	16	6		19	5	2	46	11		62	+35
2	Chelsea	27		7	5	2	23	8		9	2	2	24	8		16	7	4	47	16		55	+31
3	Liverpool	27		7	6	0	20	8		8	4	2	23	12		15	10	2	43	20		55	+23
4	Aston Villa	26		5	6	2	18	13		10	0	3	22	12		15	6	5	40	25		51	+15
5	Arsenal	27		7	5	2	18	11		5	5	3	20	14		12	10	5	38	25		46	+13
6	Everton	27		5	5	4	20	16		7	3	3	16	12		12	8	7	36	28		44	+8
7	Wigan Athletic	27		6	4	3	13	11		3	4	7	14	15		9	8	10	27	26		35	+1
8	Fulham	26		8	3	1	21	9		0	7	7	3	13		8	10	8	24	22		34	+2
9	West Ham United	26		6	1	6	18	17		3	5	5	14	17		9	6	11	32	34		33	-2
10	Manchester City	26		8	0	5	28	12		1	5	7	15	23		9	5	12	43	35		32	+8
11	Sunderland	26		5	2	6	15	15		3	5	5	12	18		8	7	11	27	33		31	-6
12	Bolton Wanderers	26		5	2	6	13	15		4	1	8	16	23		9	3	14	29	38		30	-9
13	Hull City	26		3	3	7	14	27		4	5	4	18	21		7	8	11	32	48		29	-16
14	Tottenham Hotspur	26		4	5	4	11	9		3	2	8	17	23		7	7	12	28	32		28	-4
15	Newcastle United	26		4	6	3	19	20		2	4	7	14	22		6	10	10	33	42		28	-9
16	Portsmouth	26		5	2	6	18	21		2	5	6	11	22		7	7	12	29	43		28	-14
17	Middlesbrough	27		4	6	4	12	15		2	2	9	8	21		6	8	13	20	36		26	-16
18	Stoke City	26		6	4	3	15	13		0	3	10	8	29		6	7	13	23	42		25	-19
19	Blackburn Rovers	25		3	4	6	15	21		2	4	6	13	21		5	8	12	28	42		23	-14
20	West Bromwich Albion	27		5	2	6	18	24		1	2	11	6	27		6	4	17	24	51		22	-27

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