VAR played a starring role in Chelsea’s hard-fought win over West London rivals Fulham in Saturday’s lunchtime Premier League kickoff. In the first half, Rodrigo Muniz’s supposed “careless challenge” in the buildup to Josh King’s well-taken strike saw the opener ruled out. But the bigger controversy came after the break, when a decision pushed the scoreline beyond the Cottagers’ reach.
Fulham boss Marco Silva will be fuming after Rob Jones and VAR appeared to completely gloss over a potential handball by Joao Pedro in the buildup to the incident that ended with Ryan Sessegnon conceding a penalty through handball himself (watch the incident below). The spot-kick gifted Chelsea a cheap route to goal and marked the third time in as many league matches this season that VAR decisions have tilted in their favour.
Unsurprisingly, confusion has reigned both online and in the stands over why Enzo Maresca’s side were still awarded a six-yard attempt, despite Pedro clearly touching the ball with his hand. But now, an explanation has emerged.
Why Ryan Sessegnon Conceded Penalty Despite Pedro Handball
Rob Jones VAR
The explanation provided by the Premier League match centre for the decision notably overlooked the other key incident involved. On X, they wrote (see below):
'After VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision of no penalty to Chelsea. Referee announcement: “After review, Fulham thirty makes his body unnaturally bigger by blocking a cross, with his arms extended away from his body. Therefore my final decision is penalty kick."'
While there was no clear explanation as to why Pedro’s handball didn’t result in the on-field decision of no-penalty from standing, TNT Sports pundit Karen Carney suggested one possible reason: officials may have judged it to be ball to hand rather than hand to ball, with the added factor that the distance between the scorer of Chelsea’s first goal and the ball was minimal.
Either way, VAR has already taken centre stage in the 2025/26 season, and supporters online remain understandably frustrated by some of the decisions made so far in its sixth year of use. Consistency remains the biggest issue under scrutiny - but Chelsea won’t be complaining, especially after also benefitting on the opening weekend when Eberechi Eze’s free-kick for Crystal Palace was controversially chalked off.