Crystal Palace midfielder James McArthur reckons Eden Hazard bought the penalty that sealed the Premier League title for Chelsea.
The Belgian converted the spot-kick – albeit fortuitously after Julian Speroni’s initial save – to hand the Blues a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
McArthur and Adrian Mariappa were adjudged by referee Kevin Friend to have fouled Hazard as he burst into the penalty area.
However, the Scottish international insists the decision just before the break was unfair.
The 27-year-old said: “It’s my opinion that he connected with me. I’ve put my leg in, and he comes into me.
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“You can see why the referee gave the decision, but I don’t know if it was a penalty - he made contact with me and it’s a hard call.
“Chelsea got the decision on the day.”
He added: “The penalty definitely changed the game. If we go out 0-0 in the second half it’s a different game and at half-time but it happened and we had to deal with it.
“I felt we did OK. Obviously it was always tough going to Chelsea and they were trying to win the league.
“I felt it was a lot more positive than the past two games though and we made it hard for them at times - on another day we may have taken one of our half-chances. “We knew we were going to be under pressure a lot against the best team in the league.”
Despite the controversy and narrow nature of the defeat, McArthur was in no doubt that the Blues deserved the title.
“Chelsea know how to win games and have an unbelievable record at home - they deserve the title, they’ve been the best league, and even when they don’t play so well they win,” he said.
“They just have that know-how of winning matches.
“We made it hard for them and can take positives from the game. If we keep doing that, we’ll be fine for the last three games.”
He added: “The gaffer was gutted for us because we put so much effort in but he’s a lot happier compared to the previous two weeks.”
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