Mike Dean makes Premier League confession regarding Chelsea

No offence Chelsea fans, he was only protecting a friend…

Former Premier League referee, Mike Dean has let the cat out of the bag over a VAR mistake he made to save fellow referee Anthony Taylor during a match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.

The match was a high end fixture in the 2022/23 league season that was well talked about as it featured former Chelsea and Tottenham bosses, Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel in a dramatic duel on the pitch side.

So many controversial decisions were made in the game to result in the eventual 2-2 stalemate that supposedly served as a preamble for Chelsea’s season.

In the fixture, Chelsea were denied a penalty by match day referee, Anthony Taylor, which was then backed by the VAR official on the day, who happened to be Mike Dean.

Coming out a season later, Mike Dean has confessed to failing to correct the mistake by Anthony Taylor in order to save his friend’s face from further “grief”.

The call was made shortly before a late Harry Kane equalizer against the Blues after Cristian Romero had pulled Marc Cucurella’s hair in the penalty box.

Mike Dean acknowledges making a bad call not to send the referee to go and review the penalty call.

“I missed the stupid hair pull at Chelsea versus Tottenham which was pathetic from my point of view,” Mike Dean told Simon Jordan in the Up Front podcast.

“It’s one of them where if I had my time again, what would I do? I’d send Anthony [Taylor] to the screen. I think I knew if I did send him to the screen… he’s cautioned both managers, he’s had a hell of a game, it’s been such a tough game end to end.

“I said to Anthony afterwards: ‘I just didn’t want to send you to the screen after what has gone on in the game’.

“I didn’t want to send him up because he is a mate as well as a referee and I think I didn’t want to send him up because I didn’t want any more grief than he already had.”

Chelsea have for many games seen the team play victim to poor refereeing decisions in the premier league, with Anthony Taylor being a very feared matchday official amongst the Blues fanbase.

Mike Dean however has retired from refereeing games and sitting on the VAR hot seat, with the former matchday official 2 months after stepping from VAR duty following the Tottenham incident, saying;

“That was a major error. If they don’t score from the corner it is not as big an issue.

“But I knew full well then I would be stood down the week after. I asked to take a bit of time off because it wasn’t for me.

“I used to get in the car on a Friday and was dreading Saturday. I was thinking, ‘I hope nothing happens’. I used to be petrified sitting in the chair.”