'Perfectly-good goal' - Heartbroken Josh King reveals feelings over Fulham's VAR controversy at Chelsea
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Credit: TNT Sports
Ben Palmer
Sat 30 August 2025 15:10, UK
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.
Credit: Hasan Karim, Breaking Media
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.
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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.
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.