Eberechi Eze thought he had fired Crystal Palace into the lead at Chelsea on Sunday with a stunning free-kick, but an unusual law was applied to disallow the goal.

The goal would have given the visitors a priceless victory on the opening weekend at Stamford Bridge.

Sky Sports explains why it was ruled out…

What happened?

Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella committed a foul on Will Hughes just outside of the area and Eze blasted the free-kick past goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to put Crystal Palace ahead in the 13th minute.

However, the VAR James Bell spotted that Palace captain Marc Guehi had pushed Moises Caicedo to create a gap for the ball to fly through and, in doing so, had moved too close to the Chelsea wall when the ball was struck.

Referee Darren England ruled out the goal after consulting the pitchside monitor and announced the decision to Stamford Bridge. He said: “After review, the Crystal Palace No 6 [Guehi] 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.”

Sky Sports’ Chris Sutton said on co-commentary that the decision was “scandalous” and “extremely harsh”.

What does the law say?

The IFAB Laws of the Game for 2025/26 state: “Where three or more defending team players form a ‘wall’, all attacking team players must remain at least 1 m (1 yd) from the ‘wall’ until the ball is in play.

“If, when a free-kick is taken, an attacking team player is less than 1 m (1 yd) from a ‘wall’ formed by three or more defending team players, an indirect free-kick is awarded.”

Has this happened before?

One similar incident occurred last season, although it went unpunished, which coincidentally was also in Chelsea’s favour.

Reece James scored a free-kick to equalise in the 95th minute against Bournemouth in January.

However, two Chelsea players, Marc Cucurella and Tosin, were stood within a metre of the Bournemouth wall. The goal should have been ruled out.

Glasner: Premier League must be careful with free-kick law

Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner says the Premier League has to be careful with the law.

“I know we have to be one yard away from the wall,” he said. “I think maybe we have a situation where we sometimes try to block like everybody’s doing. And, obviously, the block started too early.

“But the Premier League has to be careful when they disallow these kind of goals. Because I think in every direct free-kick, there are blocks somewhere around the wall. But, of course, we have to accept it because that’s the rule.

“I was a little bit surprised, because VAR is treated or handled very, very cautiously here in England, which I really appreciate. It’s always about supporting the referee’s own field decision.

“My great team, who is always watching all the set-plays, will watch it again and find a solution so that in the next case it won’t happen again that the goal is disallowed, and then we can celebrate and hopefully win.”

‘VAR is against goals’

Micah Richards said: “There can’t be any complaints but it feels like VAR is anti-goals.”

Roy Keane added: “Attacking teams now need to be aware of this rule. We see players in there blocking and being a nuisance all the time.

“Guehi’s almost gone too far in being a nuisance and shoving players about. He just needed to do it a little bit.”

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From this season, Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.

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