Referee Oliver had a busy day at the Emirates on Sunday but the bigger issue involved Oscar's treatment.
On Sunday, John Terry celebrated at the final whistle as if the Premier League title had been secured right then and there with that scoreless draw at the Emirates. Arithmetic says otherwise, but maybe it had. There's a moment when you know you've won even when, theoretically, your rivals could come back.
Ultimately though, it was a game that will be remembered more for some controversial refereeing decisions than for the football itself, which was OK in the first half but rather turgid in the second.
Jose Mourinho's decision to play Oscar up front was vindicated. And by the way, it wasn't a striker-less system; when you take an attacking midfielder and ask him to make the same runs your center-forward would make, he becomes a center-forward. Arsenal struggled to create and if anything, Chelsea had some of the better opportunities.
You can see where Michael Oliver was coming from with three of the penalty decisions he chose to not to award. Gary Cahill's handball was at close range and while his arm was away from his body, it was in a natural position for somebody sliding in to try and block a shot. Hector Bellerin's contact on Oscar was very slight, certainly not enough to unbalance him and cause him to fall in the way he did. (And, no, contact does not equal foul.)
Santi Cazorla's clip on Cesc Fabregas was interesting. I honestly don't know if Oliver got it correct and if anything, it underscores how difficult the job can be for referees. Cazorla's leg is out and Cesc makes contact with it. Oliver had to judge whether the contact was enough to impede Cesc and whether it was Cesc striking Cazorla's leg or Cazorla tripping Cesc. Calls like these make me glad I'm not a referee.
The other huge call was David Ospina taking out Oscar in the first half. Here, I have no idea what Oliver was thinking. I can only assume he didn't see it. What Ospina did was reckless and dangerous and he totally missed the ball. That's what you call a stonewall penalty.
Was Oscar concussed? Should he have played on? The league, and soccer in general, should have a clearer protocol.
Then there's the issue of whether Oscar was concussed or not. My colleague Taylor Twellman was quite vocal about this on Twitter: he has long campaigned for more stringent concussion protocols. I'm not a doctor and even if I was, I didn't examine Oscar at the time. But if, as Mourinho said after the game, Oscar was sent to hospital at half-time for more scans because Chelsea were "a little bit scared," it's difficult to understand how he was allowed to play on and only taken off at the interval.
I've written about this before and I think there's a solution that can work. It involves a rule change and so it needs to come from FIFA and IFAB. But potential head injury, obviously, is not something to be taken lightly.
Bayern finally clinch the title
You knew it was coming and, on Sunday, it did. Wolfsburg's 1-0 defeat at Borussia Monchengladbach, coupled with Bayern's victory over Hertha Berlin on Saturday, adds up to three straight titles for the Bavarians.
Bayern's projected points total this season is 86, down four from last year and down five from Jupp Heynckes' final season. The gap over second-place Wolfsburg projects out to 17 points, compared to 19 the season before and a whopping 25 in 2012-13. Goals are also down: a projected 87, relative to 94 and 98. On the flip side, they're on track to concede 15, which is an improvement over last year's 23 and the 18 allowed under Heynckes.
Sometimes numbers mean diddly-squat, but sometimes they're telling. In this case, I'd lean towards the latter.
Pep Guardiola had to deal with both a string of injuries and a post-World Cup hangover. He had to integrate a new center-forward, Robert Lewandowski, who while obviously top-drawer, has a different skill set compared to the guy he replaced, Mario Mandzukic. Toni Kroos' departure left a big gaping hole in the middle. There's plenty of quality to fill it, of course, but injuries to Thiago Alcantara, David Alaba and Bastian Schweinsteiger meant it happened in fits and starts.
Bayern won on Saturday and clinched their title on Sunday. It might be the most impressive of Guardiola's wins.
Those defensive numbers, however, are significant. Jerome Boateng is having arguably his best season in a Bayern shirt (first leg against Porto aside) and he is an excellent complement for Mehdi Benatia, picked up in the summer and nearly flawless. He has tinkered more than last season with formations and personnel but the emphasis has been on tightening the screws at the back.
This may well be, defensively, the best team he has ever worked with. If that was one of his objectives this season, he can call it a success.
Fan actions overshadow Turin derby
Torino's dramatic 2-1 comeback derby win over Juventus on Sunday was overshadowed by events before and during the game.
A reported 300 or so Torino Ultras hurled bricks and stones at Juve's team bus prior to kickoff. A window was broken; nobody was hurt. And during the match, what can best be described as a cross between a firecracker and an IED exploded in a stand occupied by home fans. Ten Torino supporters were injured, three had to be hospitalized.
This will undoubtedly queue up all sorts of debate over stadium safety and Ultras. If you follow Serie A, you've seen and heard it before. Other than actually applying the existing legislation (and holding Torino to account for what happens in their stadium) what would help effect real change is both Ultras and other supporters taking responsibility.
There are morons and hooligans in every group. If you help identify and discourage the miscreants, even if they're wearing your colors, you will be contributing greatly. It's called positive peer pressure. And it works.
How much progress have Manchester United made?
Louis Van Gaal is 34 games into his Premier League career as coach of Manchester United. Because his predecessor, David Moyes, was dispatched after 34 matches, comparisons are inevitable.
Van Gaal has more wins, more draws and fewer losses -- and obviously more points. His team has scored more goals and conceded fewer and is three places further up the table, even after Sunday's 3-0 defeat at Everton.
So what does all this mean? Not much in terms of ranking the two managers, since there's a $200 million net spend separating the two. But where you can judge and draw your own conclusions is whether you think this United side plays better than last season's version. And whether it's further along in its development.
Manchester United's leaders didn't step up as needed during Sunday's defeat to Everton, explains Paul Mariner.
In my opinion, there has been undeniable progress, though obviously not to reflect $200 million of spending. (Though it's worth remembering that it wasn't Van Gaal who spent that cash or opted to pay the prices United paid for certain players.)
Even in the Everton game, United played much better than the result suggests. If Marouane Fellaini doesn't miss that early chance, the game could easily have taken a very different turn. What's in even sharper focus is how certain roles need to be filled, most notably the Michael Carrick position.
With Carrick, United are a much better side. But he turns 34 this summer and, in any case, is injury-prone: he has started 75 percent of United's league games just once since 2007. Finding a long-term Carrick replacement ought to be amongst United's priorities this summer.
Sequestering squads won't work in the long term
A few weeks ago I criticized Napoli for turning to "ritiro," the antiquated practice of sequestering the squad away to supposedly help them focus. Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis would probably say it worked as since that fateful moment after the Coppa Italia defeat to Lazio on April 8, Napoli have played five games, winning four and drawing one, while scoring 16 and conceding three.
I'd still argue it's more coincidence than correlation, but Milan decided to go down the De Laurentiis route with a punitive retreat of their own after Saturday's horror show of a defeat at Udinese (2-1). They drove home from Udine and slept at the training ground Saturday night before being allowed home in the morning, presumably to pack up some personal effects. By Sunday night they were back at Milanello and the length of their punitive retreat is, according to the club, "indefinite."
"They might stay until Wednesday or maybe May 3 or May 10 or May 17 or May 24 or May 31, based on what the manager decides and he'll decide based on performances," the club explained.
Plain and simple, this is nonsense. It's treating adults like kids. They may be lazy adults, but they're adults nonetheless. If you need to resort to this type of chest-beating, drill sergeant idiocy, then you've got serious problems.
"I don't like this sort of thing, but when you've hit rock bottom, you need to something to get back up," manager Pippo Inzaghi said. True, but if this is the best "something" you can come up with, maybe you shouldn't be coaching Milan.
Lyon, Ligue 1 title race still running
Lyon just won't go away. On Saturday, Paris St. Germain pummelled Lille, 6-1 with Ezequiel Lavezzi, he of the wayward finishing, nailed a hat-trick. Twenty-four hours later, Lyon fired right back, winning 4-2 at Reims.
Both clubs are on 68 points but PSG have to make up a game, which they'll do on Tuesday night when they host Metz. On paper, it's a formality (Metz are second bottom). Then again, on paper, Lyon shouldn't be top of the table.
Something has to give regarding fans, violence
These were the scenes ahead of Saturday's "Eternal Derby" between Partizan and Red Star Belgrade.
If you watched the video, you won't be surprised that the game was delayed for 45 minutes as both sets of fans fired flares and stun grenades. We've been here before, of course. Two years ago, there were 104 arrests. On the one hand, the sight of the heaving, smoke-filled sea of flares is breath-taking and a huge part of local football culture. But on the other, it's patently unsafe and a conduit to violence.
There's no catch-all solution here. Without fans expressing their footballing culture, the game becomes meaningless. But when that culture endangers and, effectively, represses other fans -- imagine being elderly or with children. Would you want to be in the midst of that? -- something has got to give.
The game finished in a scoreless draw, leaving Partizan five points clear of Red Star with six matches to go. This weekend saw 50 people arrested and another 40 injured.
Barcelona display serious confidence in the derby
Luis Enrique called it the best half of football he's seen from Barcelona this season. I guess he would know, but whatever the case, any derby jitters were wiped away early against Espanyol. The home team raised the barricades, they were tested early and within half an hour, Barca were 2-0 up slthough it could have been more.
Lionel Messi's pass to pick out Jordi Alba, whose first-time cross was dummied by Luis Suarez and buried by Neymar, was a beauty. The second, a laser-guided Suarez-to-Andres Iniesta-to-Suarez combination to set up Messi, ran it close.
You couldn't pick any holes in Barca on Saturday and neither could Espanyol, so Jordi Alba engaged in a bit of self-harm, getting himself foolishly sent off. He got a yellow for kicking the ball away and then a second caution, presumably for talking back to the referee. Harsh? You bet. And not something you ordinarily see from a match official.
Barcelona's win over Espanyol wasn't nearly as tight as the scoreline suggests and proved their confidence.
But with Alba off, Luis Enrique made a curious choice. When you lose a defender and you're in the lead, conventional wisdom suggests taking off a striker. Instead, he did nothing for 10 minutes. When he did make a change, it was a midfielder, Rafinha, who made way for Jeremy Mathieu. Barca went from a 3-3-3 to a 4-2-3.
Was it a sign of Luis Enrique's confidence? Were his team so dominant he forgot they were down to ten men? Did he want to experiment a little, perhaps knowing there will be situations down the road when they might be down a man and his front three will have to cope?
Who knows? Whatever it was, it worked. And it was only 11 minutes from time that he finally took off a striker (Suarez) for a midfielder (Ivan Rakitic).
Premier League relegation battle could involve Newcastle
Of the bottom five clubs in the Premier League only Burnley lost and it was both hard-fought and against another bottom-five team, Leicester City. Hull won (2-0 vs. Crystal Palace) while Queens Park Rangers and Sunderland grabbed a point against West Ham and Stoke respectively.
When you're in a relegation race at this stage of the campaign, one of two things happen to you. You either pull together and raise your game or the bottom falls out and you sink. It applies to those teams immediately above them, too. Aston Villa fell 3-2 against Manchester City but ran them real close.
Hull's Dame N'Doye made our ESPN FC Team of the Weekend. Who else got in?
Which brings us to Newcastle. Technically they're five points from danger, so they ought to be just fine. But they have now lost seven games on the bounce. And, in fact, they've won just twice in 2015. Two of the four games in their run-in are against relegation-threatened teams, both away (QPR and Leicester). The other two are against West Brom and West Ham -- teams clubs whose players (supposedly) are already in holiday mode. How they perform in those could end up determining whether they stay up.
And to think that on December 6 after their 2-1 win over Chelsea, they were joint sixth in the table.
Real Madrid overcome serious Celta Vigo test
My ESPN FC colleague Craig Burley has been known to criticize Liga teams for "lying down" when facing the big boys. I'm not entirely sure what he means, though I'm eager to get his thoughts on Celta's approach to the visit of Real Madrid.
Eduardo Berizzo's crew are solidly in mid-table and had nothing to lose against the European champions. They could have done what some teams do: shut up shop and try to look for the counter-attack, which is what smaller clubs often do. Yet they chose the opposite, offering up a swashbuckling attacking lineup designed to go toe-to-toe with Madrid.
(Don't ask me which approach -- uber-defensive or uber-attacking -- constitutes "lying down." Ask Craig.)
Chicharito had another influential game for Real Madrid at the weekend, eliciting praise from Carlo Ancelotti.
Without the usual suspects (Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema) Madrid were clearly rattled by Celta's all-out attack and in particular, the tandem of Nolito and Santi Mina. They're simply not used to being dealt with this way, certainly not by the Celtas of this world. Yet Carlo Ancelotti's side hung in there, hit on the break and emerged as 4-2 victors, with Chicharito grabbing two goals.
For the neutral, it was a spectacle. Enough to make you wonder what might happen if more mid-table sides played like Celta.
Gnoukouri's rise is something to behold
So we know better than to get carried away, right? But once in a while, it's hard not to.
Two years ago, Assane Gnoukouri was released by Marseille's youth academy. Unable to find a team, he ended up in Italian non-league football at some club called Altovicentino, which is where he was a year ago.
Last summer, just before his 18th birthday, he joined Inter's youth ranks. And now he has started the last two games for the nerazzurri: the derby against Milan and Saturday's 2-1 win over Roma, where he was among the better players of the pitch.
He has 163 minutes of professional football under his belt and the hype machine is getting into swing. All you can do is go by what we've seen so far. And based on that, the young Ivorian had better get himself some shades because that's how bright his future looks.
And finally... Bas Dost!
No Bas Dost watch last week and I was inundated by complaints as a result, so here goes. Everyone's other favorite Dutch giant didn't get off the bench in Wolfsburg's 1-0 defeat away to Gladbach.
But since our last update two weeks ago, he has made three appearances for a total of 78 minutes. No goals, however, which means the drought is now up to 761 minutes. That's a lot. Yet it's still some way from his personal record, which stands at 1019 minutes and was set back in 2008-09 when he was at Heracles Almelo.
We may check back with him when he scores again. Or when he sets a new goal drought record.
Gabriele Marcotti is a columnist for ESPN FC, The Times and Corriere dello Sport. Follow him on Twitter @Marcotti.