Chelsea and Fulham clash on Saturday afternoon in a fiery West London derby. Unfortunately, the officials were at the heart of the drama in the first half at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea host Fulham this weekend in the Premier League, which is their final match before the first international break of the 2025/26 season.
The London derbies finished with a win apiece last year because Enzo Maresca and Marco Silva are quite evenly matched. Incidentally, it was the away team that won on both occasions.
Fulham boss Silva hailed several Chelsea players in his pre-match interview, including Blues striker Liam Delap. It was frustrating to see the young centre-forward substituted off in the early stages with what appeared to be a hamstring problem, though.
Chelsea v Fulham - Premier League
Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
VAR controversially disallowed Josh King goal vs Chelsea
Chelsea and Fulham went into half time with the score 1-0 to the hosts, but that doesn’t paint the picture of a contest that the visitors were on top in.
The major talking point came in midway through the first half when Josh King’s goal was disallowed.
After the 18-year-old Fulham talent scored a superb individual goal, VAR sent referee Rob Jones to the pitchside monitor to check an alleged foul from Rodrigo Muniz on Trevoh Chalobah in the build-up. The match official decided to change his decision and disallow the goal because Muniz did appear to accidentally step on the Blues defender.
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#CHEFUL – 22’ VAR OVERTURN
After VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision of goal to Fulham.
Referee announcement: “After review, Fulham number nine commits a careless challenge, stands on the foot of the Chelsea defender, therefore we disallow the goal and we…
— Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) August 30, 2025
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The misery continued for Fulham when Joao Pedro’s header in stoppage time of the first half put Chelsea 1-0 ahead. Incidentally, Gary Neville was spot on with Pedro that he would be a hit in Chelsea colours because he can’t stop scoring.
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Jason Cundy’s reaction to disallowed goal
According to Jason Cundy, Chelsea were very fortunate to see Fulham’s goal ruled out in the opening 45 minutes for the incident in the build up.
Cundy said via Chelsea’s official app (12:52pm, 30 August): “There is absolutely no doubt he makes contact with him. It’s a coming together… It’s not a foul… I’m Chelsea through and through, but I also like to think I can be objective about things when things don’t go our way. It’s not a foul. We’ve dodged a bullet.”
In fairness, if a football match was stopped every time someone’s foot was accidentally stepped on it would never end. From Fulham’s perspective, they will have every right to feel aggrieved with the decision.