Chelsea's Torres not a cheat, says Man Utd legend Neville

Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville sprang to the defence of Chelsea striker Fernando Torres who was booked for diving in the summit clash at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Neville reckoned Torres was hard done by, even if he should have received a straight red for his first-half foul on Tom Cleverley.
 
He claimed: “The first booking was a straight red card because it was clearly dangerous and violent.
 
“But two wrongs don’t make a right and the referee got both decisions wrong because the second card wasn’t a yellow.
 
“There’s a public outcry about diving and we’re all calling them cheats, but they’re not cheats. They might just be anticipating the challenge.”

The decision of referee Mark Clattenburg to issue Torres a second yellow card for diving after a challenge by Jonny Evans was the focus of much of Di Matteo's frustration.

The Spanish international had been booked for an earlier challenge on Tom Cleverley before his 68th minute clash with Evans.

"He played the ball between his legs, then he gets kicked on his shin and goes down - it's as simple as that," said Di Matteo.

"It's a free-kick for us and might even be a sending off for Evans as he is through to the goal. I was shocked. I thought it was going to be a free-kick for us and a foul for us, not against us.

United boss Alex Ferguson viewed it differently and felt Torres deserved.

"Did Torres intend to dive? He could have gone on and he didn't," he said.

"I thought he went down. I think Jonny may have just caught him a little bit but you can carry on running and he chose to go down.

"He could have carried on and scored. That is what I can't understand. I would never have missed that chance to go through. I would never go down, but he's gone down and that is the issue. And he's been booked, so it's his own fault.

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