Robert Sanchez issues 21-word statement after Chelsea red card in Man Utd defeat

Robert Sanchez issued a short statement on his Instagram account following his red card in Chelsea's defeat to Manchester United. The west Londoners were reduced to 10 men inside four minutes when the Spanish goalkeeper was dismissed for a reckless challenge on Bryan Mbeumo. They went on to lose at Old Trafford with Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro scoring for the hosts and Trevoh Chalobah bagging a late goal for the visitors.

Sanchez looked distraught as he made his way down the tunnel after being shown the red card by referee Peter Bankes. Filip Jorgensen came off the bench to deputise for the 27-year-old but was unable to prevent the Blues from slipping to their first defeat of the campaign. After the final whistle, Sanchez took to Instagram with a statement consisting of just 21 words.

He wrote: "On me today guys, big sorry for that, team put a massive effort in the second half but couldn't get there."

Jamie Redknapp, who was on punditry duties for Sky Sports, accused Sanchez of a lapse in concentration for the red card but also blamed his defenders for not doing their jobs properly.

"Bryan Mbeumo was definitely going to get the ball, absolutely no doubt," said Redknapp while discussing the incident at half-time.

"[Moises] Caicedo was sleeping, [Wesley] Fofana isn't going to get back. The mistake the goalkeeper makes is that he goes back and then he comes forward. It's definitely a red."

Enzo Maresca, meanwhile, stopped short of openly criticising Sanchez in his post-match interview when asked what he thought of the decision to send the goalkeeper off.

"Nothing," replied the Chelsea manager. "It's a situation that we can avoid because we knew these kind of long balls for [Benjamin] Sesko, they try to flick for Mbeumo.

"We knew that. Unfortunately we conceded in that moment. When you are one player down, it becomes completely difficult and it changed the game."

It was a flick on from Sesko that set Mbeumo on his way to goal as the ball sailed beyond Chelsea's backpedalling defenders. Sanchez was standing on the edge of his box and decided to race forward in an attempt to get there before Mbeumo.

Unfortunately for the Chelsea man, he got his bearings all wrong as Mbeumo stretched out his leg and knocked the ball past him. Sanchez ended up flooring the United winger, leaving the referee with little choice but to brandish the red card.

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