Marco Silva hits out at Premier League referees over ‘clear’ Fulham penalty decision in Aston Villa defeat

Marco Silva let rip at Premier League officials after claiming Fulham had been denied a clear penalty in their 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa.

With the visitors leading 1-0, Josh King raced into the box and tumbled over a challenge from Emi Martinez – only to receive a booking for diving instead of a spot-kick.

Silva was already fuming about incidents at Chelsea earlier this season, when a goal from King was controversially disallowed after a VAR check, and the hosts were given a disputed penalty.

‘We don’t need anyone to educate Josh King,’ said Silva. ‘We know how to educate a player. He is a great talent and not a player who likes to cheat. This was a moment for Josh to be given something from VAR and they didn’t give him it again. You can imagine how he is going to feel.

‘The referee (Andrew Madley) was very quick to give the yellow card. I watched the images and it’s clear. He was tackled by Martinez, 100 per cent – nobody can tell me he was not. If a player is tackled by the goalkeeper in the box, 99 per cent of the time it is a penalty. The other one per cent, was this one today – not a penalty.

‘[The officials] can call us, they can write to us what they want but it’s clear that it was a penalty.’

Josh King was instead booked for diving as he got tangled up with Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez on Sunday

Silva was also irked at another penalty call, when King’s shot hit the arm of Matty Cash but the referee was unmoved.

In that 2-0 defeat at Chelsea, Fulham conceded a penalty when Ryan Sessegnon was ruled to have handled a cross. Silva argued that Cash’s intervention was similar and believes the same standards were not applied.

‘Cash didn’t do it on purpose, but he made his body bigger – which is what Sessegnon was ruled to have done,’ Silva pointed out. ‘One week it is a penalty, another it is not. It is too obvious to speak about it.’