Why VAR awarded Leicester penalty vs Chelsea without sending referee Andy Madley to screen

There was late drama in the early kick-off on Saturday as Chelsea beat Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.

Chelsea were in complete control from the off, but gave themselves a late scare by allowing the Foxes into it in the final few moments.

Nicolas Jackson opened the scoring for the visitors, firing home a lovely goal in the 15th minute. And while Noni Madueke had a goal disallowed for offside, Enzo Fernandez grabbed the second in the second period, nodding home after Jackson's initial header was well saved by Mads Hermansen in the Leicester goal.

Cole Palmer should have scored another in the second period but his apparent tap-in was blocked almost on the line by his own teammate Madueke, who was trying to jump out of the way. The two players could see the funny side and they might have had egg on their face had Leicester got back into it late on like they threatened to do.

The home side thought they should have had a penalty when Stephy Mavididi went over a Wesley Fofana challenge in the box, but Andy Madley, and the VAR Paul Tierney, said no.

In the 94th minute, however, Leicester were awarded a penalty when Bobby Decordova-Reid was felled by Chelsea substitute Romeo Lavia. But it was not a clear cut case.

Madley looked like he was going to award a spot-kick, only to see the assistant referee's flag, instead awarding a free-kick to Chelsea.

VAR Tierney took a look at the offside and saw it was in fact onside, which then led to him looking at the penalty incident. Ordinarily, if the VAR thinks there has been a clear and obvious error, the on-field referee is told to go and look at the VAR monitor.

However, this did not happen. Madley had Tierney in his ear, and rather than tell him to go and watch the screen, Madley was told to give a penalty.

football.london understands the regular protocol was not adhered to because Tierney knew Madley was going to award the spot-kick before giving the offside call. Because Madley had already made a decision - in the eyes of the VAR - going over to the monitor was not required as the VAR was simply backing up the referee's on-field call, rather than overturning a decision.

The Premier League Match Centre on X.com said: "The on-field decision was offside following a challenge in the penalty area by Lavia on De Cordova-Reid. The referee was going to award a penalty kick, which was overruled by the decision of offside. The VAR checked and confirmed that De Cordova-Reid was in an onside position and also confirmed the referee’s call of penalty kick."

Join the football.london Chelsea WhatsApp community

Sign up to our Chelsea WhatsApp service and get all the latest breaking news and in-depth stories from football.london's dedicated Chelsea writers direct to your phone.

By signing up to this free service you will be the first to know the news from Stamford Bridge as it happens.

To join our Chelsea community, all you have to do is click this link to join and you're in!