• Premier League

Chelsea row ref Atkinson 'one of the best'

Under-fire referee Martin Atkinson has been defended as "one of the finest in the league" by former colleague Howard Webb.

Atkinson has faced intense criticism for his performance in Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Burnley last month, controversially failing to send off Ashley Barnes for a challenge that Jose Mourinho said could have ended Nemanja Matic's career.

There was more refereeing controversy at the weekend, with Roger East sending off Wes Brown during Sunderland's 2-0 defeat at Manchester United for a foul that appeared to have been committed by John O'Shea.

However, Webb - the only referee to take charge of a World Cup and Champions League final in the same year - has used his new role as technical director of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) to defend his beleaguered colleagues.

"Modern football is highly chaotic, with incidents happening in different places simultaneously," he told the Times. "You are running across the pitch, heart beating at 170 beats per minute using your judgement to focus on the right things […] but no matter how good you are, you will make mistakes

"We are human. We only have one pair of eyes. It really hurts [when you make mistakes].The guys deal with it in different ways. Some will ring me and speak to me for three hours about the previous day. They just want to get it all out there."

PGMOL's decision to overturn Brown's red card on appeal, but not to transfer the one-match ban to O'Shea, was met with derision from Keith Hackett, a former head of the referees' board, who called on Webb to return to the game in a bid to improve the standard of officiating.

Howard said: "When I speak to the guys on the way home, they sometimes struggle to admit they made a mistake at first. Only when we explore the incident the next day can they see the mistake and why it happened.

"The worst thing is to be affected by the abuse. If you become tentative as a referee, you are not going to perform."

Martin Atkinson has courted controversy for his performance in Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Burnley © PA Photos

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