Liam Rosenior has slammed the match officials following Chelsea's defeat to Newcastle United. The on-field referee, Paul Tierney, was controversially caught up in the Blues' huddle shortly before kick-off.

Chelsea were also denied a penalty during the second half when Nick Woltemade brought down Cole Palmer inside the box. Speaking to reporters at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening, the Blues boss said: "I'm disappointed.

"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.

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"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.

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"There is nothing that they're doing with that huddle that is disrespectful to the opposition. We had a meeting with the referee, my assistant goes in, the first thing he 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. People were at that game Arsenal, I said what I said.

"We're not being disrespectful to the opposition. If Paul 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 said: "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 PGMOL.

"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."

Reflecting on the result, Rosenior said: "Mistakes happen. They had nothing but we gave them a goal. It feels like every mistake we're making is ending up in the back of the net.

"I wouldn't say it's all gone wrong. First 15-20 minutes, we had chances. The goal gave Newcastle energy. We lacked a bit of mental freshness in the final third.

"The second thing is we need to make sure, if we're not going to score then the other team don't score. It's disappointing we didn't keep a clean sheet when they didn't create much."

Rosenior added: "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."