'Sanitising football' - Joe Cole slams VAR decision after Josh King's solo stunner against Chelsea ruled out
Published 30/08/2025 at 13:49 GMT+1
Chelsea were lucky after Josh King's solo opener for Fulham was ruled out, in a decision that was harshly criticised by Joe Cole as "sanitising football." King had scored his first Premier League goal with a stunning effort, only to be disallowed after teammate Rodrigo Muniz was deemed to have made a "careless challenge" on Trevoh Chalobah despite being in possession of the ball.
Watch as teenager King scores stunning first Fulham goal - only to be denied by VAR
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Joe Cole called the disallowing of Josh King's goal against Chelsea an act of sanitising football.
The Fulham 18-year-old had just scored his first Premier League goal at Stamford Bridge, only for the first-half opener to be ruled out by VAR.
The goal was disallowed after a review deemed that Rodrigo Muniz stepped on Trevoh Chalobah's foot in the build-up to the goal, leaving Fulham supporters baffled and angered.
TNT Sports pundit Joe Cole was forthright in his opinion of the decision and criticised VAR's verdict.
"First of all, Chelsea are very lucky. I'm happy it's not a goal but for football's sake, it's not a foul. He's got his body, yes there's contact, but it's not a foul," Cole said.
"To sanitise football like that, a Fulham 18-year-old ran away and scored his first goal in the Premier League and they take that off him."
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Cole continued: "It's not a tickling contest, I don't like the nitpicking, he stood on Chalobah's ankle and there was contact and I can understand rules of the game. It wasn't a careless challenge, it was just two professional footballers going in for a challenge and there's a little bit of contact.
"I'm happy it's not a goal from Chelsea's perspective, but I don't like it in football when you're chalking off goals for that, it makes it too sanitised for me.
"From Chalobah's perspective, he's got to try and win the ball on the halfway line, once he goes to go ground and feels a bit of contact, he can't affect the game then.
"So his actions are very intelligent by staying down, he knows that VAR will come in and look at it in slow motion, and it looks like a foul. If we love football, we can't be stopping football for things like that on the halfway line."
King coolly scored for the Cottagers to put the visitors ahead, but their celebrations were cut short when referee Rob Jones was informed about a review of a foul before the goal.
Muniz turned while in possession and accidentally stood on the foot of Chalobah as he attempted to tackle the Fulham forward, which was unavoidable.
Following a review, Jones ruled the goal out down to a "careless challenge," even though Muniz was in possession of the ball.
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Delap denied as Chelsea threaten early on with ‘slick football’
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Speaking during half-time, Karen Carney said: "I think the word he used he might regret, because I don't think it's a careless challenge.
"For me it's not a high threshold and this goal should have stood. They're denying an 18-year-old of their moment in the Premier League, he's been the best player on the pitch."
On commentary for the game, TNT Sports' Darren Fletcher was equally scathing:
"All he's trying to do is turn, and there's nowhere for his foot to go apart from where it went. I have to say, I don't like to see goals like that wiped off, I really don't.
"If we start to play this game in slow motion, we've got a problem.
"I must say I don't like that at all, and I think a lot of managers in the Premier League would say 'We don't want to see that as a decision.' I don't think that's a good decision at all."
Alongside Fletcher was Lucy Ward, who said: "Look how quick that is going.
"When you see it in slow motion it looks like a foul, I completely understand. But Chelsea fans must look at that and think they're lucky.
"I know that Marco Silva is emotional, but I've never seen him as fuming as that."
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