Marco Silva criticised the officiating after Fulham's 2-0 defeat at Chelsea, describing as “unbelievable” the video assistant referee decision that ruled out Josh King's first senior goal when the match was goalless. The 18-year-old had put Fulham ahead in the 21st minute, but VAR Michael Salisbury instructed referee Rob Jones to review the pitchside monitor, leading to the goal being disallowed for a foul by Rodrigo Muniz on Trevoh Chalobah in the buildup.
Silva said the decision came despite Muniz being in possession when he inadvertently caught Chalobah, and he felt the VAR had overstepped its remit. “All the decisions from the VAR and the referee made a massive impact on the game,” he said. “To disallow a goal like that is unbelievable. We have all the meetings with the people in charge; one of the main things was: ‘VAR is not here to referee the game.’”
Fulham were also aggrieved that Chelsea were allowed to score in the ninth minute of added time, when only eight had been signalled. Silva claimed the referee should have blown the whistle before Enzo Fernández's corner led to João Pedro's opener. “He has to stop the game, it’s the rules,” Silva said. “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.”
The Fulham head coach was equally frustrated by the penalty awarded to Chelsea for Ryan Sessegnon's handball, arguing that several fouls on his players were ignored in the buildup. “It’s handball, but before that moment you can see easily two, three or four fouls for ourselves,” Silva said. “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.”
Silva declined to comment further for fear of punishment, saying he wanted to be on the bench for Fulham's next match. “I would prefer to say nothing more as I will be punished,” he added. “I don’t want to pay fines. But it has been difficult with so many decisions against us at the start of the season.”
