Fulham’s goal of the month award for August has been won by Josh King – despite the 18-year-old’s effort not actually counting.
Michael Salisbury was on VAR duty a cross-London clash between Chelsea and Fulham before the international break as Enzo Maresca’s Blues looked to maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign.
However, the game would ultimately be mired in controversy due to a contentious first-half decision that denied Fulham an opener.
With the game goalless after 20 minutes, Sander Berge found Rodrigo Muniz who proceeded to float past Trevoh Chalobah before driving the ball up the pitch.
The Brazilian subsequently played the ball to King, ebi fired home to the delight of the travelling supporters before Salisbury sent referee Robert Jones to the monitor to check for a possible foul in the build-up.
After reviewing the incident Jones ruled the goal out, with Muniz’s accidental stamp on Chalobah ruled as a ‘reckless challenge’ – a decision fans have dubbed ‘unbelievable’.
Replays showed that Muniz only made minimal contact with Chalobah and King was left hugely frustrated at seeing the goal disallowed, with referee Rob Jones coming under scrutiny.
Chelsea went on to secure all three points courtesy of goals from Joao Pedro and Enzo Fernandez, leaving Cottagers boss Marco Silva furious.
Had the effort been allowed to stand it would have been King’s first senior goal for Fulham – but he now has a goal of the month award to his name anyway.
Fulham said that the goal ‘was cruelly taken away from the 18-year-old’ and that he received 83.1 per cent of the vote.
Following the furore surrounding the decision, Salisbury was removed from his position as VAR official for Sunday’s clash between Arsenal and Liverpool, with John Brooks taking his place.
The decision was also criticised by Jamie Carragher on social media, with the former Liverpool defender writing on X: ‘VAR has had a shocking start to the season.’
Meanwhile, Rio Ferdinand wrote: ‘VAR killing this young man’s moment’.
PGMOL later acknowledged that the decision for VAR to intervene was a mistake.
