West Ham started their 2019/20 Premier League campaign with a 5-0 defeat to Manchester City at the London Stadium.
Despite the five goals scored from the Premier League champions, all the talk surrounding the game has been about the use of VAR.
The technology was first used to rule out a Gabriel Jesus goal, as it was shown that Raheem Sterling’s shoulder was marginally offside in the build-up.
It was then used by the referee to make Sergio Aguero re-take a penalty, after Lukasz Fabianski had saved the initial spot-kick, due to encroachment. Aguero scored on the second attempt.
These West Ham fans have taken to Twitter to voice their opinions on VAR…
Daniel isn’t happy with how it was displayed to fans in the ground…
Twitter: #VAR absolute shambles (as are #WHUFC) Fans not updated or shown replays despite @premierleague rules. #WHUMCI (@DanielVDean)
One user has given up already!
Twitter: #WHUFC
I give up on VAR??
Even Penalties are re-done (@MacbethUg)
Is it going to be fun?
Twitter: 1st one looked clearly onside – no goal.
2nd one looked clearly offside – goal.This is going to be fun! ?
#WHUMCI #VAR #MCFC #WHUFC (@iamVilla)
Mark thinks it’s a shambles.
Twitter: What an absolute shambles #VAR is. He was our best player earlier, and now he’s turned his back on us. Traitor. #WHUFC #WHUMCI (@markconradhack)
Kaustubh is ready to give VAR time to improve.
Twitter: I don’t think #Sterling was offside there. But VAR will only improve with increased usage.
Last season in the EFL… https://t.co/X2bRmFGvIu (@Kaus_Pandey17)
READ WEST HAM VERDICT
It was only the second-ever Premier League match to use VAR, after Friday’s clash between Norwich and Liverpool, so there was always going to be a learning curve.
As controversial as it is, it gets the right decisions and avoids teams losing points due to errors from the officials – which can only be seen as a positive in the long-term.
Yes, it is going to be frustrating for the match-going fan in the first few months, but once everyone is used to the process it should improve and become far more streamlined than it currently is.
