A “careless challenge” was sufficient grounds for Fulham’s opening goal against Chelsea to be disallowed, according to referee Robert Jones. Youngster Josh King believed he had put Fulham ahead with a brilliantly-executed finish from a counter-attack.
However, the goal was ruled out due to an alleged foul on Trevoh Chalobah by Rodrigo Muniz, much to the frustration of the away side. A statement from the Premier League read: “22′ VAR OVERTURN After VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision of goal to Fulham.”
Following his review of the goal on the VAR monitors, referee Jones explained: “After review, the Fulham 9 commits a careless challenge and stamps on the foot of the Chelsea [inaudible]. Therefore we disallowed the goal and restart with a Chelsea free kick.”
Fans disagreed with the ruling, with many turning to Twitter to voice their opinions.
One supporter declared: “Game’s actually gone. How is this a ‘Careless challenge ‘ by Muniz? Every single week PGMOL is ruining our beautiful game.”
Another fan commented: “Careless challenge, game’s gone,” whilst a further supporter responded: “Shocking decision! The ref said it was careless. There ruining football.”
Former Chelsea player, and TNT Sports pundit Joe Cole disagreed with the decision to rule out King’s first Premier League goal.
“To sanitise football like that,” Cole said. “The kid, the 18-year-old Fulham lad, has run away to the halfway line celebrating after scoring his first goal in the Premier League.
“To take it off him for that? Like I say, it’s not a tickling contest. I don’t like this nitpicking.
“He stood on Chalobah’s ankle and there was contact, I can understand the rules of the game. It wasn’t a careless challenge, it was just two professional footballers going in for a challenge and there was a bit of contact. I don’t like it in football when you’re chalking off goals for that. It makes it too sanitised.”
King nearly created another goal for Fulham with his clever movement just before half-time, before pulling the ball back to Timothy Castagne, only for the full-back to see his shot blocked.
King has started all three of Fulham’s league matches this season in what is proving to be a breakout campaign for the young midfielder.
