Stoke City manager Mark Hughes said Chelsea wing-back Marcos Alonso should have been sent off during his side’s 4-0 home defeat against the Premier League champions.
A frustrated Alonso was given a yellow card for a late challenge on Joe Allen after the break and then committed another foul moments later, catching Mame Diouf as he tried to win possession.
Blues boss Antonio Conte soon replaced the Spanish defender but Hughes said he should already have been red-carded.
“The referee made a call with Alonso, who could have been sent off,” said former Chelsea striker Hughes.
“Their manager took him off moments after that. Those are the key moments that need to go for you.”
Hughes felt the size of the defeat did not reflect a match which saw Stoke enjoy plenty of possession and force Chelsea back for long spells in the second half.
But he said they paid the price for sloppy defending, which saw them caught out by a long ball for the opener and a Darren Fletcher mistake lead to Pedro scoring the second.
“You cannot win Premier League games if you make catastrophic defensive errors and we did,” Hughes added.
“We made the worst start possible. We gave good value in the first half and were very much in the game but another mistake put us 2-0 down. We were in the game until the 75th or 80th minute.”
This post was last modified on 23/09/2017