“We didn’t bully Chelsea – they were sore losers”
Chelsea didn’t handle their defeat at home to Burnley well last week. The champions lost the opening game of the season 3-2, and lost their discipline in the process. Chelsea received seven yellow cards and two red cards, playing most of the match without captain Gary Cahill before losing Cesc Fabregas late in the game.
Antonio Conte’s side can have no complaints about their loss, as Burnley fully deserved to win. However, according to Jon Walters, that didn’t stop Chelsea moaning.
The Republic of Ireland forward was a late substitute in the game, and has revealed that Chelsea staff didn’t react well to losing to unfashionable Burnley. In fact, it appears no-one associated with the club took the defeat with good grace.
“I know a few words of Italian from [former Ireland coach Giovanni] Trapattoni and their bench was giving it loads to our bench,” Walters said during a brilliant interview with The Times.
“There was a guy hammering the gaffer, so I just gave him a couple of words back in Italian and he looked at me, and sat down. Just before we scored, they were going mad. Normally when you go to those places, you don’t get the free kicks you should get. But the referee did unbelievably well, so they weren’t happy.”
The former Stoke forward said Chelsea’s players spent most of the game “moaning” and that their discipline was “horrendous.”
“We were 2-0 up and got a free kick on the edge of the area and the gaffer was just standing, watching, and this guy on the Chelsea bench said, ‘Hey, yeah, you want more, you want everything’. That’s rich. When we scored off that free kick, I was laughing at him, going, ‘Yeah, we want more’. He gave me the finger. A few of the lads said, ‘Has he just done that?!’ So then I’m like, ‘Tranquillo, tranquillo.’ [Quiet, quiet] I was laughing at him.”
Walters also said that the Chelsea fans were equally pissed off about losing to Burnley, but that he enjoyed the “banter” from the stands.
“I was warming up, getting abused off the Chelsea fans. Grown men in front of their kids. Even women giving me abuse. Expletives, hand gestures, the lot. I love all that. It’s great. I spoke to the guy [on Chelsea’s bench] afterwards. It was a bit of banter.”
