Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior has continued to complain about Arsenal’s pre-match warm-up, attempting a bit of misdirection in his press conference at the weekend.
Following Chelsea’s defeat to Newcastle United, manager Liam Rosenior went on a rant about referee Paul Tierney, admitting he was upset to learn that the ref had mentioned his complaints about Arsenal before Saturday’s match.
As a refresher, Rosenior was caught on camera swearing at Arsenal staff for entering Chelsea’s half during the League Cup match between the two teams back in February.
It was widely reported the staff member in question was taking part in the warm-up with the goalkeepers, receiving long passes from the Arsenal keepers. But Rosenior reignited the debate on Saturday by claiming it “wasn’t the goalkeeper coach” involved in the incident.
“We had a meeting with the referee (pre-Newcastle United),” Rosenior revealed. “My assistant goes in. The first thing [Tierney] talks about is our huddle. He says about when I complained about Arsenal being in our half.
“It wasn’t the goalkeeper coach that was in our half, and people who were at that game at Arsenal know why I said what I said. We’re not being disrespectful to the opposition.”
Though it’s technically true that the Arsenal staff member in Chelsea’s half wasn’t a goalkeeper coach, to say as much and then leave out the rest of the context is a clear attempt at misdirection on Rosenior’s part.
Sky Sports footage of the incident showed it was Izan Martin in Chelsea’s half, a fitness coach at Arsenal. But Martin was working with the goalkeepers at the time, collecting long passes, regardless of his official job title.
Actual Arsenal goalkeeper coach Inaki Cana can’t be everywhere at once, so the two men often work together:
This is a completely normal thing for goalkeepers and their coaches to do in the warm-up. This weekend, both Everton and Arsenal players and coaches could be seen in the opposition half for this same drill, just as it is every week.
Rosenior knows this, so he knows he doesn’t have a leg to stand on if he details his problem in full. It would just be embarrassing for him if he explained that he was annoyed at an Arsenal drill that was the same as every other team does every week.
Instead, the Chelsea manager has to try and discredit the story by focusing on pedantic details that the media might have misrepresented, which is what he’s clearly doing here.
It may not be an outright lie, but it’s clearly deceitful on Rosenior’s part.