- West Ham United were defeated 1-0 by Arsenal at the London Stadium
- Callum Wilson had thought his extra-time effort snatched a point for the Hammers before being ruled out
- Peter Schmeichel claims the decision to disallow the equaliser was ‘wrong’
Despite holding their own for the majority of the match, West Ham United succumbed to Arsenal on Sunday afternoon. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side had momentarily gained a point, keeping their Premier League survival chances afloat, but VAR controversially ruled the goal out.
After being pegged behind by the Gunners with less than ten minutes of normal time to play, Callum Wilson came off the bench and thought he had volleyed in the equaliser. However, following a long VAR review, referee Chris Kavanagh determined that Hammers forward Pablo Feilpe had engaged in an infraction against Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya from the corner.
As a result, Arsenal defeated West Ham 1-0 at the London Stadium, extending their advantage at the top of the league to five points while leaving the Hammers one point below Tottenham Hotspur in 18th place.
The game’s decisive moment brought a flurry of contrasting comments from both sets of players, coaches and pundits.
Peter Schmeichel claims Arsenal vs West Ham VAR decision was ‘wrong’
Former Premier League-winner Peter Schmeichel believes the decision to disallow West Ham’s equaliser against Arsenal on Sunday was wrong, adding that such circumstances are ‘how they’ve scored so many’ themselves.
Speaking on Viaplay’s punditry team at the London Stadium, the goalkeeping legend didn’t hold back in his critique of the incident, criticising the officiating staff involved.
“What really makes me angry is that Arsenal would never be top of the league if that’s a free kick,” Schmeichel said.
“That’s how they’ve scored so many goals, by blocking people, holding people, doing all kinds of things.
“And then we get to this point, it takes VAR… five minutes. He starts it over again, and over again — that in itself puts so much doubt into that decision that it cannot be a free-kick.
“I think it’s so wrong. I just don’t understand why all of a sudden that’s a free-kick, because it’s not been for any teams all the way throughout the season… it’s just so wrong on so many levels.”
Sunday’s controversial call follows a season in which West Ham have fallen on the wrong side of officiating decisions. In the Hammers’ 3-0 loss against Brentford at the start of the month, there were three key decisions that went against West Ham.
