‘Perfectly-good goal’ – Heartbroken Josh King reveals feelings over Fulham’s VAR controversy at Chelsea
Josh King scored his first senior goal against Chelsea only for VAR to overrule the decision in a controversial fashion.
The 18-year-old broke through into Fulham’s senior side last season, making 11 appearances for the Whites in all competitions.
Most of those came from the bench, with Marco Silva slowly integrating the youngster into his squad.
But this year, King has been the focal point of a Fulham side that has impressed, but remains winless in the Premier League.
The England Under-19 international was the Cottagers’ best player on the pitch in a 1-1 draw against Brighton, before a quieter performance against Man United.
However, against Chelsea, King had his first taste of the madness that is the current state of Premier League refereeing.
Josh King thinks goal vs Chelsea was ‘perfectly-good’
With 21 minutes gone, King broke through the Chelsea backline after latching onto a pass from the exit-linked Rodrigo Muniz, turned inside former Fulham man Tosin Adarabioyo, and coolly slotted past Robert Sanchez.
The goal illustrated all of the youngster’s technical ability and composure beyond his years, but his joy was quickly replaced with dismay.
Rob Jones and VAR combined to disallow Fulham’s opener, deeming a tread on Trevoh Chalobah’s toes by Rodrigo Muniz as a “careless challenge”.
Speaking after the game to TNT Sports (30 August, 2.50pm), King said: “It’s a hard feeling to describe. Obviously scoring, that emotion for the team and stuff, and that great feeling.
“Obviously it was a tough decision. I think it was a perfectly-good goal but obviously there’s not much you can do.
“We just had to try to pick ourselves back up and fight for the next 70 minutes.”
To make matters worse, Chelsea were awarded a penalty in the second half despite there being a foul on Alex Iwobi and a Joao Pedro handball in the build-up.
Fulham suffer yet another VAR setback
Football Insider Verdict
As if last season wasn’t bad enough, the standards of Premier League refereeing seem to have slipped even further into the abyss.
Jones and the VAR team seemed genuinely incapable of getting a decision right today. It was truly astonishing to watch.
In just three games so far this season, Fulham should have had a penalty against Brighton when King was brought down in the box, Man United’s goal should not have stood for an obvious shove in the back, and both of Chelsea’s goals should not have been given.
And those are just the decisions against the Whites. Each season, teams in the Premier League spend hundreds of millions improving their squads, taking them away for high-end pre-season preparations, raising the level of their performances year-on-year.
So what are PGMOL doing in this time period? Certainly not making their referees better or more capable, that’s for sure.