Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher believes West Ham’s late leveller at Stamford Bridge should have stood on Saturday.
The Hammers thought they had snatched a point late on when summer signing Maxwel Cornet blasted the ball to the net only for VAR to reverse on-field referee’s Andy Madley’s decision.
Jarred Gillett at Stockley Park felt that the Irons’ Jarrod Bowen fouled Edouard Mendy before the loose ball fell to Cornet and as a result the goal was ruled out much to the dismay of captain Declan Rice who labelled the decision a ‘shambles’ while David Moyes branded the call ‘ridiculous’.
Gallagher was on Ref Watch on Sky Sports on Monday morning to discuss the weekend’s major talking points and had this to say on Gillett’s thinking:
“I think for whatever reason the VAR focused on what happened to the goalkeeper, felt he was on the ground, he felt he was injured you know he hasn’t got the feel that Andy Madley has on the field and I think that’s what played a major part in this, they saw the goalkeeper on the ground and that took priority rather than the decision itself.
‘But I still come back to the fact that the referee had the best view, A on the pitch and B on the monitor.”
While West Ham will still have a defeat marked against them even the PGMOL’s admission that their decision was wrong won’t repair the damage.
Moyes’ men must focus on regrouping as they look to climb out of the bottom three where they are languishing having picked up just four points from their first six games.
A trip to Newcastle on Saturday awaits after the visit of Basel in the Europa Conference League and the London Stadium outfit will be hoping their fortune changes as they look to kickstart their season.
