"Ban him from our games!" Thousands of Chelsea fans call for petition to ban Anthony Taylor from officiating Chelsea games.

 Chelsea•News•Opinion

Premier League referee Anthony Taylor was in the centre of the action as Chelsea beat AFC Bournemouth 1-0 on the South Coast. 

In the game which saw Anthony Taylor in charge of officiating,  Chelsea and AFC Bournemouth have broken the record for the most yellow cards recorded in a single Premier League game.

Between the two sides, 14 yellow cards were dished out by referee Anthony Taylor. Eight of these bookings were dished out to the Blues as Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, Robert Sanchez, Nicolas Jackson, Levi Colwill, Jadon Sancho, Renato Veiga and Joao Felix all received cautions.

Manager Enzo Maresca was also given a booking in what transpired to be an incident-prone evening. However, Taylor will find himself firmly under the spotlight for his refereeing with many supporters in agreement that the game was not an overly ill-tempered affair.

Last season, Taylor was demoted to the Championship after he controversially awarded a penalty to Newcastle United for a foul by Wolverhampton forward Hwang Hee-chan. This was later deemed 'scandalous' by Wolves' manager Gary O'Neill.

Due to the amount of bookings Chelsea received, they will likely receive a fine from the FA for failure to control their players. The Blues may be able to shrug off this fine thanks to being on the right side of the scoreline at the Vitality Stadium.

The victory moves Chelsea up to seventh in the Premier League while Bournemouth, who gave a good account of themselves but were ultimately unclinical, slip to 11th after their first defeat of the campaign. 

However,  many Chelsea fans have called for Anthony Taylor to be banned from officiating the Blues' games going forward. 

"Anthony Taylor should stop refereeing Chelsea game , he nearly ruined the game. A Premier league record of 14  yellow cards in one match plus 2 extra yellow cards for both Coach making it 16 🤔. I was afraid thinking he would give Chelsea red, because he's use to that 😨." One wrote. 

"Anthony Taylor is the ONLY referee in modern history to officiate TWO FA Cup finals (both happened to be when Chelsea were in the final)

•He's now officiated THREE of Chelsea’s last FIVE Premier League Games

• He will be the center referee against AFC Bournemouth, meaning he’s now officiated HALF of Chelsea’s Premier League Games this season

I’m sorry but this is no longer a coincidence, this is contraption right in front of our eyes. How he is still allowed to officiate Chelsea games I may never know." Wrote another. 

"Anthony Taylor showed 14 yellow cards in the Bournemouth V'S #Chelsea game, a new Premier League record 🟨🤯

Damn, I'll be there when Antony Taylor get banned from the Premier League."

Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola refused to comment on Taylor's refereeing performance in his post-match interview. 

He said: "I will not talk about the referee.

"I have been talking and it is not working so I have decide now I will try the opposite, not talk and let's see what happens."

Chelsea are back in action next Saturday when they travel to London rivals West Ham United.