DAVID MOYES vented his frustration at West Ham’s rough luck with referees after enduring the Premier League’s longest ever VAR check.
The Hammers had an injury time winner against Aston Villa ruled out by VAR, causing Moyes to confront referee Jarred Gillett at full-time having had a fourth handball decision go against them in ten days.
In all the injury-time check took a staggering five minutes and 37 seconds, a new record beating the five minutes it took to rule out a Jay Rodriguez goal for Burnley at Bournemouth last season.
Ref Gillett and VAR Tony Harrington decided that Tomas Soucek had deliberately handled the ball before Jarrod Bowen turned it in. If the handball had been deemed accidental the goal would have stood.
Against Villa, the hosts had two goals ruled out for handballs following a check either side of Mohammed Kudus firing one in a second after the whistle had been blown for a foul on Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez by Antonio.
That comes after a controversial call not to award West Ham a late penalty for handball against Sander Berge last Sunday, with a similar incident happening in their first leg against Freiburg.
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Moyes said: “We think they are goals but VAR are the ones who decide, not us.
“Burnley last week, Freiburg last week, two today. Every one of them has gone against us on handball situations so it’s hard to take.
“You’ve got VAR so if VAR thinks it’s right they’ve got a chance to look at things so they must be right.
“Football people see things differently. Maybe that’s where I see some of them differently.
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“Undoubtedly you might think that some of them hit people’s arms and it does and if that’s the rule we have to go with the rule.
“But we had two that hit people’s arms last week, not one of them went our way. Not one of them.”
Moyes, who said he will not discuss the incidents with referees boss Howard Webb, added: “You can contact Howard yourselves and get the results.”
A late winner, following Michail Antonio’s opener and Nicolo Zaniolo’s equaliser, would have made it three Prem wins from four games for the Hammers and strengthened their European charge.
Zaniolo has not started a Premier League game in 2024 but made a huge impact off the bench, ensuring Villa did not suffer back-to-back league defeats.
Boss Unai Emery said: “I’m very happy for Nicolo, hopefully we can keep him in this mood for the rest of the season.
“When they scored the plan changed and in the second half we did better than in the first half.
“We dominated, scored the goal and tried to win the match. It’s a draw but the result is good for us.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
