Frustration was the prominent emotion for Marco Silva on Saturday afternoon, after VAR declined to intervene on the key moment of our meeting with Chelsea.
With the score goalless, Malo Gusto caught Willian high on his ankle with his studs.
Referee Anthony Taylor duly booked the full-back, but the dangerous nature of the challenge meant it was somewhat surprising when there was no recommendation that Taylor go to the screen for a second look.
Addressing the incident in his press conference, Silva said: “A clear mistake from the VAR, in our opinion, given some conversation that we had with the fourth official, it’s a clear red card in that situation.
“It’s difficult for Anthony Taylor to decide, for him to see if it's a red card or not. He decided yellow card, and we have to be fair with him because the moment is really quick for him to see if it's so dangerous from Malo Gusto.
“But after has to come the decision from the VAR to overturn the decision, in my opinion.
“In the Premier League so far, in 10 moments like that one, nine have been a red card. This afternoon wasn't a red card.
“Okay, the decision is a clear mistake from the VAR to not overturn the decision, to give the chance for Anthony Taylor to go to the screen.
“Of course, if there’s a red card in that moment after 38 minutes, that will have a huge impact in the game, and the game is going to be completely different.”
Less than 10 minutes later, Chelsea scored the only goal of the afternoon from the penalty spot – a goal which arrived during one of Fulham’s strongest spells of the game.
“Chelsea started better than us,” Silva admitted. “The way we started the game was not at our best level.
“They started on the front foot, we had some difficulties to connect the first passes between us every time we were on the ball.
“The reaction was strong from Chelsea, but was much more our fault. We didn’t connect well in something where normally we are strong in our offensive transition.
“It wasn't the best start for us, definitely the first 15-20 minutes. After that, I think the game started to be more balanced – some spells for Chelsea, others for us as well.
“We had good moments in our offensive half – very good chance for Harry Wilson to score as well, great save from the Chelsea goalkeeper.
“And, of course, after came the penalty in the last minute of the first half, and that gave them the chance to lead at half-time.
“Second half, the game was more broken. We took some risks and there was much more space for Chelsea to counter-attack in some moments to create some chances – they had two off the post. We had our moments as well, our chances.
“The game was much more open and they should have scored more. We had our chances to score as well to equalise the game. The second half was really intense, but not really well played by both sides.”