Thiago Silva is every Chelsea fan as he responds to post about penalty decision in Man City defeat
Thiago Silva appeared to give his view on referee Anthony Taylor on social media after Chelsea's opening day defeat to Manchester City.
The Blues got their Premier League campaign off to a losing start as they were beaten 2-0 by the champions, and their former captain was left frustrated with one of the match official's decisions.
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Erling Haaland gave City the lead in the 18th minute, before Mateo Kovacic secured the three points late on with a goal against his old club, but he almost gave Chelsea a route back into the game.
Minutes before he struck, the Croatian was let off the hook as Taylor chose not to award a penalty after the ball struck his arm inside the Citizens' box.
The decision left fans furious, and Silva, whose four-year spell at Stamford Bridge recently came to an end, revealed he was no different as he later seemed to aim a dig at the referee on Instagram.
Underneath a post highlighting the incident, Silva commented: "Anthonyyyyyyyyyyyyyy," followed by a laughing emoji, two eyes emojis and a waving hand.
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Though controversial, Taylor's call was in line with the Premier League's new handball rule, which states that players no longer have to keep their arms down or behind their backs when defending.
Should the ball hit their arm, officials must then judge whether it was in an unnatural position, and the proximity of the player to the ball.
But this wasn't the first time that Silva has taken to social media to question one of Taylor's decisions.
In August 2022, the 39-year-old was left incensed after the referee failed to penalise Tottenham's Cristiano Romero for pulling Marc Cucurella's hair moments before Spurs equalised against Chelsea.
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At the time, the centre-back posted a picture of the incident on his Instagram story, alongside the caption: “Haven’t you seen this? No way. Can you pull hair out?”
The officials' latest call will surely have hurt even more, with it ultimately condemning the Londoners to a disappointing start to life under new manager Enzo Maresca.
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Despite this however, the former Leicester boss was not totally discouraged, and admitted that there were encouraging signs from his team's performance against English football's dominant force.
Speaking after the match, he said: “I thought our performance was good. We don’t like to lose but I thought the performance was there.
"We competed against the best team in the world and we competed for large parts at the same level and in some moments were even better.
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“We created chances and I think the big difference between us and them was especially in the box and the way they managed the ball in the last parts of the game but they are masters at that.”
Reiterating the positives, he added: “Overall, I think our performance was quite good.
"I think today we were better than the last game, against Inter Milan, and I think that this is the most important thing – to improve game-by-game."
Maresca will be hoping his team can show further improvement in their next two games, starting with a Europa Conference League qualifying match against Swiss outfit Servette.
Chelsea will then turn their attention back to the Premier League with an away fixture against Wolves, where they will look to bounce back from their opening day disappointment.