Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock has been hit with a misconduct charge by the Football Association for comments he made following his side’s loss to Chelsea on Saturday.

Warnock was unhappy with the performance of referee Craig Pawson who he said was “influenced” by the Chelsea players.

The 65-year-old was referring to the referee’s decision to show a second yellow card to defender Damien Delaney just three minutes after Chelsea full-back Cesar Azpilicueta was shown a straight red.

Delaney picked up both cards for challenges on Loic Remy and Warnock felt the Chelsea players pressurised the official after the second incident to try and balance the teams again.

Warnock said: “The one thing I’ve not missed when I’ve been doing media work is refereeing performances like that. I thought he (Pawson) was influenced today.

“For the second booking Remy dives and then you have four Chelsea players surrounding the referee. I thought those days were gone – banned.”
Following the comments made by the former QPR and Sheffield United boss he has now been charged by the FA and has until 18:00 BST on Monday to respond.

An FA statement read: “It is alleged that Warnock’s post-match comments constituted improper conduct in that they implied the match referee was motivated by bias; and/or brought the game into disrepute, in contravention of FA Rule E3 1/81 3/8.”

Crystal Palace can be backed at 4.25 to pick up a victory at the weekend when they travel away to the Hawthorns to take on an in-form West Brom side who are priced at 1.89 to claim all three points.