Fulham boss Marco Silva has voiced his anger at how controversial refereeing and VAR decisions impacted the game as his side lost 2-0 to Chelsea on Saturday.
Fulham were the better side in the first half at Stamford Bridge but Josh King’s fine strike in the 21st minute was ruled out, as VAR Michael Salisbury judged teammate Rodrigo Muniz to have stepped on Trevoh Chalobah, who went to ground, in the build-up.
Referee Robert Jones confirmed the decision despite the action appearing a natural and unavoidable move by Muniz, who had his back to goal.
Jones then awarded Chelsea a penalty after Ryan Sessegnon was judged to have handled the ball early in the second half, although it arguably could have been chalked off for a possible handball by Pedro earlier in the move, as well as a foul from Moises Caicedo on Alex Iwobi.
Silva was visibly seething at the decision to disallow King’s goal and said afterwards, “As someone who loves football, I feel sad. Just sad,” he was quoted on independent.co.uk.
“In the first half I saw my team playing outstanding football. 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. The second half was not at the level I would like to see from our team.”
Fulham are now winless in their opening three games, with decisions going against them becoming a running theme of their campaign so far.
Silva referenced “the controversy against Man Utd last week”, when they drew 1-1 and conceded a penalty, and suggested they endured similar issues at Stamford Bridge.
“Similar incidents for the opposition and for us, they decide in a different way. We are here to learn and to understand things but for me it is almost impossible for me to feel it is going to be balanced in the end.”
Also Read: Don’t Leave Barcelona Now –Busquets Warns Lopez Amid Chelsea, Man United Interest
Things went from bad to worse for Fulham as Joao Pedro scored a header from an Enzo Fernandez corner in the dying moments of first-half added time, with Silva questioning whether that should have stood too as the eight minutes added on had passed.
“I would love to explain many things,” he continued. “For example, the first goal. There were eight minutes of added time, they score in the ninth. He [Jones] 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.
“I make mistakes, the referee can make mistakes. The Premier League is so intense, so tough, but when it is black and white you cannot see something that was not there.
“To disallow a goal like that [King’s] 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’.”
