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West Ham were furious after conceding a goal to Arsenal. |
The 0-1 defeat to Arsenal in the 36th round of the Premier League not only plunged West Ham deeper into the relegation battle but also sparked outrage at the refereeing. According to the Daily Mail , West Ham are considering filing a formal complaint with PGMOL – the English refereeing authority – after Callum Wilson's equalizer in the 95th minute was disallowed due to a foul on goalkeeper David Raya.
In the controversial play, referee Chris Kavanagh initially awarded the goal to West Ham. However, after receiving a signal from VAR operator Darren England, he was instructed to review the monitor outside the pitch before changing his decision.
The organizers later explained that Pablo fouled Raya during the challenge. However, West Ham argued that an Arsenal player was the one who pushed Pablo into the visiting goalkeeper.
Despite knowing that the chances of changing the result are almost impossible, West Ham still want to request a more detailed explanation from PGMOL. According to BBC Sport , the London Stadium club also wants access to the audio recording of the exchange between the main referee and the VAR team.
Following the match, manager Nuno Espírito Santo publicly criticized the inconsistency in Premier League refereeing. "Even the referees themselves don't know what constitutes a foul and what doesn't," the Portuguese strategist fumed.
Captain Jarrod Bowen also reacted strongly: “If you watch VAR long enough, for five minutes, you’ll see something. There were a lot of shirt pulling and collisions. I don’t think it was the right decision.”
According to British media, PGMOL chairman Howard Webb believes Chris Kavanagh and Darren England made the correct decision under immense pressure. The refereeing team took 4 minutes and 17 seconds to reach their final conclusion.
This controversy further fueled criticism of VAR in the Premier League. Former striker Michael Owen argued that football is becoming "almost uncontrollable" in corner situations due to too many collisions and controversies.
Meanwhile, former assistant referee Darren Cann proposed a rule change requiring attacking players not to be in the penalty area before a corner kick is taken, in order to reduce controversial shoving incidents that currently occur.
Source: https://znews.vn/west-ham-noi-gian-vi-ban-thua-truoc-arsenal-post1650576.html
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