Chelsea benefitted from some contentious refereeing calls in a 2-0 win over west London neighbor Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday.
Joao Pedro gave Chelsea the lead with a header from a corner in the ninth minute of first-half stoppage time, after a minimum of eight added-on minutes had been called.
That further angered Fulham manager Marco Silva, who was already furious that his team’s 21st-minute goal by Josh King was ruled out after a VAR review deemed Rodrigo Muniz to have stamped on the foot of Trevoh Chalobah as he shielded the ball in the build-up.
Silva resorted to laughing sarcastically early in the second half when Chelsea was awarded a penalty for handball against Ryan Sessegnon following another video review, which highlighted two potential infringements — a push and a handball — by Joao Pedro in the build-up.
After a long delay, Enzo Fernandez — who had sent in the corner for Joao Pedro’s goal — converted the spot kick down the middle in the 56th at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea has picked up seven points from a possible nine in its first three games of the campaign, while Fulham has yet to win.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Steve Douglas, The Associated Press
