Eberechi Eze thought he had given Crystal Palace a dream start to the new season after scoringjust 15 minutes into their first Premier League matchagainst Chelsea. His powerful free-kick sent the away end into early bedlam only for it to be disallowed.
Referee Darren England cut the celebrations short after reviewing the incident via his pitchside monitor. Urged to look back at Marc Guehi's role in the goal, as he pushed Moises Caicedo out of the Chelsea wall, therefore creating space for Ezeto shoot through, England chalked off the goal.
However, despite Guehi getting physical with Caicedo, the real problem was how close to wall he was, not the shove. Palace's captain ended up within a metre of the Chelsea wall when the ball was kicked, which is now against new Premier League regulations.
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The official match centre, which explains VAR decisions online, wrote: "After VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision of goal to Crystal Palace.
"Referee announcement: “After review, away number six is less than one metre away from the wall as the shot is taken. Therefore, it's an indirect free kick and a disallowed goal”."
Chelsea had been frustrated at the awarding of the free kick in the first place after Marc Cucurella was penalised for a tackle on the egd of the box. Eze looked to have taken full advantage of the situation only for James Bell at Stockley Park to send England for a review from his position as VAR.
Adam Nunn was the assistant VAR. Questions were left over the organisation of Chelsea's wall, regardless of the final decision. Goalkeeper Robert Sanchez saw the ball smashed through his hands.
For Eze, this moment came with the surrounding noise that it could be his last game for Palace.Tottenham are keen to buy him in the final two weeks of the summer window.
As for Chelsea, they saw Eze score a stunner at Stamford Bridge in this fixture last season. That came a few games into the season and was in front of the opposite Shed End to equalise in a 1-1 draw.
This time his Palace side got off to a much better start and fought strongly against Chelsea, making things extremely tough for Maresca's men and limiting the newly crowned world champions to creating danger from set pieces.
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