Chelsea get new referee verdict after controversial Fulham VAR goal decision - 'He panicked!'

Fulham's Joshua King had his goal against Chelsea ruled out by VAR (Image: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Mike Dean believes Josh King's goal against Chelsea should not have been ruled out. The Fulham teenager thought he had scored on his Premier League debut in the first half of the west London derby at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

Shortly before the half-hour mark, Marco Silva's side caught the Blues outnumbered on the halfway line and they launched a counter-attack. Timothy Castagne fired the ball into Rodrigo Muniz, who Trevoh Chalobah quickly shut down.

As the Fulham striker looked to protect the ball, he planted his studs on the top of the Chelsea defender's foot . As Chalobah fell to the floor in agony, the ball ricocheted back to Sander Berge following a challenge from Marc Cucurella.

The Fulham midfielder played King in behind the Blues' backline. Tosin Adarabioyo raced back and showed the 18-year-old onto his left foot, but he shifted the ball back onto his right and beat Robert Sanchez at his near post .

Michael Salisbury, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), recommended that Robert Jones watch back the incident in the build-up on the pitchside monitor. Upon review, the on-field referee adjudged Muniz to foul Chalobah, thus ruling out King's strike.

Announcing the decision to the crowd at Stamford Bridge, Jones said: "After review, Fulham number nine commits a careless challenge, stands on the foot of the Chelsea defender, therefore we disallow the goal and we restart with a Chelsea free kick. There would be no further action."

Dean reacted to the intervention of VAR on Sky Sports. The former Premier League referee said: "It's such a poor call. The VAR should just stay out of it. It's just a complete accident.

"When the referee goes to the screen, he's got to think to himself, 'If I was the VAR, would I want to send the referee to the screen?'. In my opinion, he wouldn't do. I think he could have stuck with it, and everybody would have been happy with it.

"I just think it's really, really poor. He stays out of it. Is it clear and obviously wrong? No, it's not. It's a complete accident. He leaves it alone. It's too busy and he shouldn't have got involved."

Later on Soccer Saturday , Dean added: "I do not think it is a foul, it should stand. I do not know where else the attacker can put his foot. He has taken a long time over this Rob.

Chelsea celebrate Joao Pedro opening the scoring against Fulham (Image: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP)

"Rob has been sucked in by the VAR, he has just landed on his foot, which can only go in one place, it is a poor, poor call. The VAR should just stay out of it, it is not clear and obvious error, but he did not have the nerve to stick with the on-field decision, he panicked, it is just not a foul at all. I do not know anybody who would say that was a foul."

Chelsea went on to win 2-0, courtesy of goals from Joao Pedro and Enzo Fernandez. Speaking to reporters at Stamford Bridge after the game, Maresca offered his verdict on the incident .

"I just said, I review both actions," said the Blues boss. "From my point of view it's quite clear that the first one, one of their players kicked Trev and the second one is quite clear that it's handball.

"Now I can understand that from their point of view there can be no foul, but I think it's quite clear that it's a foul and then it's a penalty."

Meanwhile, Silva said: "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.

Mike Dean slams Rob Jones for ruling out Fulham's goal against Chelsea (Image: @SkySportsPL on X)

"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."

The Fulham boss continued: "I would love to explain many things. 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’."