Premier League issue two statements after Chelsea controversy | Football | Sport
The Premier League Match Centre had to release two statements during the first half of Fulham vs Chelsea. There were incidents aplenty in the west London clash, with Marc Cucurella first being shown a red card and then Harry Wilson’s goal was chalked off.
The centre first explained the decision to send Cucurella off, which prompted huge fury among the Chelsea contingent. With new boss Liam Rosenior watching on from the stands, the left-back pulled Wilson down on the edge of the penalty area. The Welshman was through on goal when he was fouled, which ensured the card coming out of the referee’s pocket was red and not yellow.
However, many inside the ground felt that Fulham should also have been awarded a penalty, claiming that contact continued into the box.
The VAR disagreed with that notion, despite home boss Marco Silva being shown a yellow card on the touchline for his protests. Enzo Fernandez, Tosin Adarabioyo and Cole Palmer were all also booked for dissent.
The Match Centre said: “The referee’s call of free-kick to Fulham and a red card to Cucurella for denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (DOGSO) was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that Cucurella committed a holding offence that did not continue into the penalty area.”
Calum MacFarlane, in the dugout before Rosenior takes over, was forced into taking Andrey Santos off for left-back Jorrel Hato.
Wilson was involved once again in the first half as he thought he had given Fulham the lead.
A slick piece of play on the edge of the box saw Raul Jimenez receive the ball with his back to goal, lay it off to Emile Smith Rowe, who flicked the ball into the path of Wilson to beat Robert Sanchez.
However, their celebrations were cut short when Jimenez was adjudged to have been slightly offside in the build-up, as he was coming back into play from an offside position.
The Centre explained in a second statement: “VAR OVERTURN. VAR checked the referee’s call of goal – and established that Jiménez was in an offside position in the build-up and recommended that the goal was disallowed.”
