Premier League issue official statement after Chelsea U-turn against Newcastle United

Chelsea thought they’d taken the lead when Palmer slotted the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal inside the opening four minutes of the game. The goal was given on field before VAR intervened and ruled the goal out for offside.

The Premier League Match Centre, which explains VAR decisions in real time, issued a short statement following the incident: “Palmer’s goal was initially awarded on-field. The VAR checked and confirmed that Palmer was in an offside position and recommended that the goal was disallowed.”

Replays showed that Palmer was narrowly offside and ahead of the defending Bruno Guimaraes.

Although Chelsea had the early goal disallowed, they took the lead after 18 minutes as Pedro Neto squared the ball for Nicolas Jackson to stroke in from close range.

Alexander Isak equalised for Newcastle in the first half before Palmer found the net within a minute of the second half restarting to restore Chelsea’s lead. The hosts thought they had a chance to seal the win in stoppage time after Christopher Nkunku went down under a touch from Dan Burn inside the penalty area.

Simon Hooper pointed to the spot but VAR intervened and the decision was overturned.

Explaining the call, Premier League Match Centre tweeted: “The referee awarded a penalty to Chelsea for a foul by Burn on Nkunku. The VAR deemed that no foul was committed and recommended an on-field review. The referee overturned the original decision and play restarted with a drop ball.”