Liam Rosenior called out referee Paul Tierney for not "focusing on his job" following a bizarre pre-match incident as Chelsea lost at home to Newcastle. The Blues' push to qualify for next season's Champions League was dealt a blow as Anthony Gordon's first-half tap-in condemned them to a first league defeat at Stamford Bridge under the English head coach. And before kick-off, Tierney strangely on the centre circle to interrupt Chelsea's huddle.

The Chelsea squad have begun gathering in a circle around the spot in recent weeks. But Tierney opted to stand by the ball and refused to move out of their way. That led to farcical scenes with the players huddling around the match official while they gave their team talk. And Rosenior was clearly agitated after his team's defeat, pointing out that he felt Tierney missed a clear penalty for his side when Cole Palmer went down inside the area after a challenge from Nick Woltemade. He said: "I'm disappointed. There's more focus and emphasis on the things that don't matter. I'm going to make it really clear. I want to protect my players. I'm respectful to the game.

"My players made the decision that they wanted to be around the ball, to respect the ball and show unity and leadership. That is not my decision. That was a decision between the leadership group and the team. There is nothing that they're doing with that huddle that is disrespectful to the opposition.

"We had a meeting with the referee, my assistant goes in, the first thing he talks about is our huddle. He says about when I complained about Arsenal being in our half. It wasn't the goalkeeper coach that was in our half. People were at that game Arsenal, I said what I said.

"We're not being disrespectful to the opposition. If Paul had focused more on his job, which was to make the right decision, we have a penalty today. I don't think anybody in this room can say that Woltemade doesn't kick Cole Palmer down in the box. So, let's focus on the things that are important. My team showing unity is not as important as getting the decisions right on the pitch."

Rosenior said he wants to sit down with the PGMOL, the body that manages refereeing standards, to discuss the matter. The 41-year-old added: "I didn't speak to Paul today or his officials. I thought it wasn't the right thing to do today. But I'll be speaking to PGMOL. I'll be speaking to the refs and just trying to get an understanding of why that happened today.

"We were told in the rule book it's about timing. You can be where you want on timing. I just want to find a solution to this because we're actually talking about something that's nowhere near as important as what's happening on the pitch."

On Chelsea's second successive defeat this week after losing 5-2 at PSG, Rosenior continued: "I wouldn't say it all went wrong. The first 15-20 minutes, I think anyone watching the game would say which way the game was headed. We had control, we had domination, we created chances and moments and then that goal gave Newcastle the energy that they needed to see out the game in the way that they wanted to play.

"For me, it's two aspects. One, we lacked a little bit of mental freshness in the final third. A combination or the right decision or that bit of quality in the moment. The second thing is we need to make sure we stay.

"If we're not going to score, the other team don't score. The disappointing thing today for me is we haven't kept a clean sheet when Newcastle, if they're being honest, didn't really create much. We give them a goal and that's something that I really, really need to solve for us to improve in the future.

"Mistakes happen. They had nothing. They had nothing in the game and we gave them a goal. It was a really difficult day, a frustrating day, because we didn't get the result that we want. But I still think there's a consistency in our performances."