Marco Silva did not hide his disgust with the officials after Fulham’s 2-0 defeat at Chelsea, saying it was “unbelievable” that a video assistant referee review led to Josh King having his first goal in senior football ruled out when the game was goalless.
The head coach and Fulham were left seething after nothing went their way in a heated west London derby. They thought they were ahead when King scored in the 21st minute but the 18-year-old’s goal was ruled out after Michael Salisbury, the VAR, instructed the referee, Rob Jones, to view the pitchside monitor to assess whether Rodrigo Muniz had fouled Trevoh Chalobah during the buildup.
Jones ruled against Fulham, even though Muniz was in possession of the ball when he caught Chalobah inadvertently. Jones later awarded Chelsea a penalty for handball by Ryan Sessegnon but only after dismissing appeals for a foul by João Pedro during the buildup.
“In the first half I saw my team playing outstanding football,” Silva said. “Playing football – not trying to be fake, not parking the bus or something like that. All the decisions from the VAR and the referee made a massive impact on the game.
“To disallow a goal like that is unbelievable. Unbelievable. We have all the meetings with the people in charge; we try to see their direction. One of the main things was: ‘VAR is not here to referee the game.’ I would prefer to say nothing more as I will be punished. I want to be on the bench for the next game, I don’t want to pay fines. But it has been difficult with so many decisions against us at the start of the season.” Manchester United took the lead in Fulham’s 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage last Sunday that stood despite Leny Yoro pushing Calvin Bassey before the header that led to Muniz’s own goal.
Silva was also unhappy with Chelsea being given time to take the lead at the end of the first half. A minimum of eight minutes were added on. Fulham thought that the half-time whistle should have blown before Enzo Fernández delivered a corner for João Pedro to open the scoring in the ninth added minute.
“There were eight minutes of added time, they score in the ninth,” Silva added. “He has to stop the game, it’s the rules. I asked the referee, he told me that we lost time because he was talking to a player. I checked the video – the game didn’t stop one second. What can I say? Chelsea won the game and we move on.”
Silva fumed about the buildup to Fernández giving Chelsea a 2-0 lead from the spot after Ryan Sessegnon handled Chalobah’s cross. “It’s handball,” the head coach said. “But before that moment you can see easily two, three or four fouls for ourselves. There was a stamp on Alex Iwobi, handball by João Pedro, push on Joachim Andersen. They saw the penalty after three moments at least that they have to see for us.
“It’s the same VAR that found something unbelievable: a stamp from Rodrigo. The same people didn’t find a stamp on Alex Iwobi before the penalty. I can’t tell you anything more, but I don’t understand it.”
