West Ham manager David Moyes branded the decision to disallow a late goal for his side at Chelsea as ‘a ridiculously bad decision’ following their 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge.
Moments after Kai Havertz gave Chelsea a 2-1 lead, Maxwel Cornet struck what he thought to be an equaliser after a mix-up between Reece James and Edouard Mendy.
Referee Andy Madley was sent to the monitor by VAR Jarred Gillet at Stockley Park to have another look at Cornet’s goal for an apparent soft challenge on Chelsea goalkeeper Mendy by Jarrod Bowen.
<div class="sdc-site-video sdc-article-widget callfn" data-account-id="6058004149001" data-amp-iframe-embed="" data-asset-id="e92a50a7-c3a2-40cc-8292-3969858cc4e6" data-asset-path="" data-asset-version="" data-autoplay="" data-auth-config=" Tuchel: It's a foul
West Ham captain Declan Rice agreed with his manager’s assessment of the call, branding it as “one of the worst VAR decisions made since it’s come into the game.”
Moyes also paid particular reference to Mendy’s involvement in getting the goal disallowed, with the West Ham manager claiming the Senegalese international deliberately faked a shoulder injury to get Cornet’s effort chalked off.
Meanwhile, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel dismissed the idea that West Ham’s prospective second goal should have stood, with the German even insisting that West Ham’s first goal – scored by Michail Antonio – should have been disallowed.
“The goalkeeper tried to do the same thing with the first goal as well,” said Moyes. “He faked a shoulder injury. It didn’t stop him from playing the last 15 minutes or however long there was after that.
“Jarrod said he never touched the goalkeeper at all [for the second goal]. You can see it, he tries to jump him and straddle him. If there’s anything there’s just a trailing foot. The goalkeeper had already mishandled the ball and it moved four or five six yards and he couldn’t recover.
“The football we play in this country is unique, it’s because of the uniqueness of the challenges. It’s why everyone watches it: the speed of the play, the ball in play time is the biggest it’s been.
“I managed in Spain, more people dived, more people went down and faked injuries and the ball was only in play for 48 minutes.
“The difference with the Premier League is that we have a product, which is exciting, fast and teams try to play. And we bring in all the different players and coaches from overseas which is fantastic, but they have to work to our culture and environment.”
When asked about the late VAR call in his own press conference, Tuchel said: “There’s a reason it went in our favour. I don’t know if everyone shares the opinion – it’s a foul. The goal that we conceded in very similar in the build-up to the situation at Tottenham.”
When asked about the first West Ham goal, Tuchel said: “The second corner should never have been a corner. When the shot came from Bowen and we had the shot from Edu, it was a clear offside position from Antonio.
“I don’t know how [it can be where] you can foul when you’re in an offside position against a goalkeeper and get a corner. That was the build-up to the first corner, it was similar to against Tottenham but I stop talking.”
” data-caption=”FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Chelsea’s win against West Ham.” data-clip-type=”” data-component-name=”sdc-site-video” data-competition=”” data-copy-url-text=”URL copied to clipboard” data-fn=”sdc-site-video” data-id=”id_e92a50a7-c3a2-40cc-8292-3969858cc4e6″ data-is-live-stream=”false” data-lite=”true” data-options=”” data-originator-id=”50″ data-originator-handle=”brightcove-plclips-gb” data-package-name=”” data-provider=”brightcove” data-player-id=”FkTAlw1HuO” data-sensitive=”false” data-sdc-id=”5886244″ data-sdc-video-id=”e92a50a7-c3a2-40cc-8292-3969858cc4e6″ data-sport-category=”” data-state=”loading” data-video-ad-unit=”football/premier-league-clips” data-video-blacklisted-originator-ids=”” data-video-id=”ref:e92a50a7-c3a2-40cc-8292-3969858cc4e6″ data-video-type=”” tabindex=”-1″>
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Chelsea’s win against West Ham.
Madley ruled out the goal after looking at the monitor – and Moyes held back nothing in his disapproval of the officials’ decision in his press conference, insisting he has “lost faith” in the refereeing in the game and hit out at Mendy for “faking an injury”.
“Have you seen it?” a disgruntled Moyes said. “The goalkeeper comes to take it and fumbles it out of his hands. Then he acted as if it was a shoulder injury. I’m amazed that VAR sent the referee to the screen It was a ridiculously bad decision.