Michael Salisbury has been replaced by John Brooks for this weekend’s mega match between Arne Slot’s Liverpool and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal due to an error he made while on VAR duty during Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Fulham on Saturday afternoon.
Teenage Fulham sensation Josh King thought he had opened the scoring at Stamford Bridge on the 22nd minute, but Marco Silva and his teammates were left fuming as VAR intervened to cancel out what was a perfectly legal goal.
As King and his teammates celebrated what they thought was the first goal, on-field referee Robert Jones was quickly summoned to the monitor to double-check the goal’s legality after Michael Salisbury noticed something in the build-up to the well-worked goal.
Michael Salisbury Punished for VAR Error During Chelsea vs Fulham
To win the ball, striker Rodrigo Muniz performed a stunning pirouette past Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah. The Brazilian stood on the defender’s foot during the process. After evaluating the tape on the sidelines, Jones declared to the Stamford Bridge fans that he would overturn the goal.
He explained: “After review, Fulham No.9 commits a careless challenge and stands on the foot of the Chelsea defender, so we disallow the goal and restart with a Chelsea free kick.” “There would be no further action.”
TalkSPORT’s Alex Crook announced on X (previously Twitter) that Salisbury had been relieved of his VAR duties after PGMOL admitted that he had made a major error in disallowing King’s goal, which would have been the 18-year-old’s first in senior Fulham colours.
“BREAKING: John Brooks replaces Michael Salisbury as VAR at LFC v AFC today. The change is the result of Salisbury meddling while on VAR duty at CFC yesterday, resulting in a Fulham goal being incorrectly disallowed.”
GIVEMESPORT senior football correspondent Ben Jacobs noted that PGMOL chief Howard Webb has had direct communication with Fulham. He wrote: “Salisbury’s intervention did not meet PGMOL’s high standard for VAR intervention.” Also, I understand Howard Webb approached Fulham directly yesterday.”
As previously said, Fulham manager Silva was not pleased with VAR’s erroneous intervention. “It is unbelievable that the goal was denied. After the second corner, it was already nine minutes into extra time. The game did not halt for eight minutes, so it should be stopped at the first corner.”
With Salisbury, who made a total of six errors when refereeing in the Premier League last season, now suspended, Chris Kavanagh will be the on-field referee for Sunday’s heavyweight showdown between Liverpool and Arsenal, with John Brooks overseeing VAR.
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