- West Ham lost 1-0 to Arsenal on Sunday
- VAR overturned a late equaliser for the Hammers
- The call has been disputed by everyone at West Ham and several in the football iundustry
West Ham United fell victim to controversial VAR call as they lost 1-0 to Arsenal. The Hammers believed they had equalised in stoppage time, only for VAR to overturn the goal due to an alleged foul on Gunners goalkeeper, David Raya.
The call compounded West Ham to defeat, leaving them staring down the barrel of Premier League relegation, whilst it also gives Arsenal one hand on the league title.
Mads Hermansen, the Hammers own shot stopper, told the club’s official website that all they want is consistency from officials, and that he does not understand the call.
“I’m just really, really angry about this,” he said. “I can’t understand from a goalkeeping perspective during a full season of illegal blocks and pulling and pushing on corners to make such a call in a game like this.
“I cannot understand. I agree you can see grabs and you can give it as a foul but you have to be consistent during the season.
“We just watched it again. You can see Dinos is getting pulled, Tomáš is getting pulled. And yes, even Pablo before he apparently committed a foul is getting pulled around.
“I think you can give a foul but you need to do it every time.
“You need to give it throughout the season. You can ask every goalkeeper in the league. They’ve been pulled, blocked illegally, stuff like this.
“It’s beyond my… I cannot understand why at this moment he will give it and stand there for four minutes, five minutes and try to find it.”
The decision impacts more than just the players at West Ham
The decision, that will be debated for some time, does not just affect the players in this West Ham team. Hermansen knows this, and it only adds the the Danish goalkeeper’s anger.
“This is our career, this is our life,” he continued.
“We have families we work so hard for to be at this level. So many people in this Club. It just means so much also for the fans.
“This [game today] is our level as a team.
“During the season we haven’t played to this but we know we’ve been able to. So yes, we played a good game and we gave them a good fight. I think we deserve so much more.
“Our only opportunity [now is] to go and win. So that’s what we have to do.
“We have two games like we just said. There’s no need to give up because we can still make it.”
