5 MIN 37 SEC
Hammers thwarted after the longest VAR check in Premier League history
YOU could forgive David Moyes for feeling a little bit sick of the handball law. Two goals ruled out against Aston Villa yesterday, two penalties not given against Burnley and Freiburg last week.
It took five minutes and 37 seconds — the longest VAR check in Premier League history — for officials to decide the ball had hit Tomas Soucek’s arm before it bounced off Jarrod Bowen and into the net for what looked to be a late West Ham winner.
Players from both teams and referee Jarred Gillett were left waiting as VAR official Tony Harrington looked at multiple angles of the incident. Gillett was then sent to review the footage on the pitchside monitor. His decision, eventually, was no goal.
It had taken nearly as long for VAR to disallow Michail Antonio’s goal earlier in the second half, also for handball.
Moyes marched on to the pitch at full time to confront the officials, but said he will not speak to referees chief Howard Webb.
‘ They have not gone for us, there is not an awful lot we can do,’ said the Hammers boss. ‘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.
‘It’s what VAR do, it’s their decision not ours, we can’t do anything about it.’
A game that had been a tale of two European hangovers, Aston Villa in the first half, West Ham in the second, somehow stretched to as long as 103 minutes.
Antonio’s diving header, his first goal since August, had given the Hammers a deserved lead at the break. But Villa seemed to find a cure for their tiredness in the second half as substitute Nicolo Zaniolo scored an important equaliser 11 minutes from time.
‘ We changed tactics in the second half and we got chances to score,’ said Villa boss Unai Emery. ‘The second half, we deserve it more than the first half.’
Defeat for Villa here, after their 4-0 thrashing by Tottenham last week, would have put a dent in their top-four hopes, even if West Ham had done them a favour in midweek by putting English clubs on course for a fifth Champions League place.
Two performance places are up for grabs due to the new format, with these determined by the two countries with the best average performances in all European competitions this season.
England had been in third, behind Italy and Germany, before the Hammers’ win moved them up to second.
It also means that if the FA Cup winners finish in the top seven, the eighth- placed team will take a Europa Conference League spot.
Villa were fourth coming into yesterday’s game and had been boosted by Spurs’ 3-0 defeat at Fulham on Saturday. But it did little to spring them into life in the opening stages.
West Ham began to get on top midway through the first half. Soucek’s attempt to divert Lucas Paqueta’s shot past Emi Martinez nearly paid off, but bounced just wide. The Argentina keeper then made a fine save to keep out Vladimir Coufal’s deflected strike.
But there was nothing he could do about Antonio’s goal on the half-hour mark. Coufal found space on the right and whipped in a delightful cross between Villa’s centre backs. Antonio threw himself at it, connecting with power and guiding the ball into the bottom right corner.
Mohammed Kudus had the ball in the net before half-time after firing in from a corner, but the referee’s whistle had already blown for a foul on Martinez.
That was the first of many decisions that would go against Moyes’s side. The second came when Antonio thought he had scored his second just after halftime. Bowen’s corner was headed on by Soucek and hit Antonio before bouncing into the net. It was difficult to see on replays, but VAR ruled the ball had hit Antonio’s hand.
From there, Villa improved. Youri Tielemans forced Alphonse Areola into a routine save from long-range before the goalkeeper made a better stop to deny Ezri Konsa from inside the box.
Villa had been steadily building pressure and the home crowd sensed an equaliser was coming. It arrived in the 79th minute when Moussa Diaby drove down the right and sent in a cross which was met by Zaniolo, who sent the ball through Areola’s legs and into the net.
The momentum should have been with Villa, but it was West Ham who came closest to a winner. A breakaway saw Kudus tee up James Ward-Prowse, but his shot was superbly blocked by Matty Cash.
Then it looked as if the Hammers had got that late winner when a combination of Bowen and Soucek forced the ball in after Konstantinos Mavropanos sent a header goalwards. Villa immediately appealed for handball — and five painful minutes later, Gillett concluded they were right.