‘dying swan’ – David Luiz
By MARTIN BLACKBURN
ALEX FERGUSON slammed David Luiz for acting like a ‘dying swan’ to get Rafael sent off.
The Chelsea centre-half clashed with his fellow Brazilian near the end of their 1-0 win yesterday.
Rafael kicked out at Luiz — and TV cameras caught the Blues star smiling as he rolled around on the turf.
Manchester United boss Ferguson said: “Rafael retaliates but Luiz rolls about like a dying swan and that convinces the referee. Luiz was smiling, it’s bad.
“What kind of professional is that?
“The ref has been bought by the fact Luiz is rolling about. But whether the ref will doing anything about it, I doubt it very much.
“Luiz rolled about. You see that with these European, foreign and South American players.
“That always happens, the player that retaliates gets the heavier penalty.
“It was quite clear Luiz has elbowed him twice. It was rash what Rafael did. He is a young lad, he should know better, but retaliation never works.
“I wouldn’t say it was violent conduct. The referee hasn’t even seen it at all.
“He has gone with the fact Luiz has rolled around on the floor and that has convinced him it is a red card.”
An otherwise forgettable game exploded into life in the final few minutes as Juan Mata’s shot deflected off Phil Jones to give Chelsea a priceless winner.
The sending off followed soon afterwards, but Chelsea can now virtually seal a top-four place by beating rivals Tottenham at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.
Chelsea interim boss Rafael Benitez insisted he had not seen Luiz’s conduct which led to the red card. But he felt the Blues had caught United on a good day.
He said: “Obviously after winning the title you can expect they will be a little bit more relaxed.
“I tried to increase the tempo, but we were missing the high tempo to beat a team like United.
“It wasn’t perfect but we did enough to beat them.”
