"Marco Silva expresses dismay over VAR, claiming unfairness, after a potentially triumphant moment is marred by controversy"
In a dramatic turn of events at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea took a commanding 2-0 lead over Fulham, thanks to a controversial VAR decision.
The pivotal moment came in the final minutes of the first half when teenager Josh King thought he had opened the scoring for Fulham. However, the goal was controversially ruled out due to a careless challenge by Fulham No.9 Rodrigo Muniz on Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah.
The decision was reviewed by video assistant referee Michael Salisbury, and after careful consideration, referee Rob Jones disallowed the goal and restarted play with a Chelsea free kick. Fulham fans voiced their disapproval, singing '2-0 to the referee' from the away end.
Chalobah, who was on the receiving end of the foul, praised the officials' decisions, expressing that he was not worried about the review of the foul that disallowed King's goal. On the other hand, Fulham manager Marco Silva reacted furiously to the decision on the touchline and at half time.
Silva later spoke on talkSPORT, expressing his frustration about the VAR and refereeing decisions. He called the disallowed goal "incredible" and emphasized that VAR should not be used to re-evaluate entire matches. Silva also stated that he would not speak to the referee or PGMOL about the decision.
England legend Stuart Pearce agreed with Silva that the VAR decision was incorrect. Pedro scored the opening goal for Chelsea from a corner in the final seconds of the first half, due to the check for the foul that denied Fulham's goal. Enzo Fernandez converted the resulting penalty for Chelsea, making the score 2-0.
Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah praised the officials' decisions, particularly the one that disallowed King's goal for Fulham. Marco Silva, however, expressed his disbelief about the penalty decision, stating that there were probably multiple fouls before the penalty that were not given.
The controversy did not end there for Fulham, as manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked minutes after failing to qualify for the Conference League. Silva launched into a rant about the decision live on talkSPORT, expressing his belief that the decision was unfair to Josh King, a young player making his senior debut.
