CHELSEA fans spotted the moment Noni Madueke tried to take the crucial penalty against Manchester United – before Cole Palmer pulled rank.
Madueke came off the bench to brilliantly win a spot kick in extra time with the Blues 3-2 down at the time.
Palmer had already converted from 12 yards earlier in the match and has acted as Chelsea’s main penalty taker this season.
But Madueke wanted to take the kick and had to be pulled away by stand-in captain Trevoh Chalobah and Enzo Fernandez.
It left fans stunned as one said: “Madueke actually went up to Palmer to try and take the pen.”
Another added: “Fighting to take the penalty and putting more pressure on Palmer.”
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Palmer is eight for eight on penalties this season, while Madueke has scored both spotkicks he’s taken – in the league against Crystal Palace and Carabao Cup versus AFC Wimbledon.
It’s not the first time this season there has been uproar over Chelsea’s penalty-taker.
Last month in the FA Cup quarter-final against Leicester, Raheem Sterling saw his tame spotkick saved after taking the ball despite Palmer being on the pitch.
It saw Sterling brutally booed by Blues fans before apologising for the miss after the match.
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Palmer made no mistake from the spot against Man Utd, the former City star putting the Blues 2-0 up after Conor Gallagher opened the scoring.
Alejandro Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes got United back level before the break.
And Garnacho then turned the game on its head in the second half to put United ahead for the first time.
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The visitors looked on the road to three points until again Palmer struck late from the spot before hammering home the winner via a huge deflection.
Chelsea had 28 shots overall compared to United’s 19 and ten of those were on target for the Blues.
But still, under-fire Old Trafford boss Erik ten Hag claimed his side were hard done by.
Ten Hag told TNT Sports: “Yes we started poor, kicking the ball away and defending poorly.
“But you saw we were dominating the game and it was brilliant how we played — we deserved to win the game.
“But, you cannot give it away like we did and we have to manage this game better.
“It is a team performance, you can point to one of the players but it is about team performance.
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“When it gets chaotic you have to deal with it as a team and we made the wrong decisions and we didn’t help out as a team.”
That drew a confused reaction from fans, as one asked: “Did you watch the game?”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
