Disallowing West Ham equaliser against Arsenal was right, says referees chief
England’s referees body endorsed on Tuesday the disallowing of West Ham United’s late equaliser against Arsenal for a foul on the keeper in a momentous decision for the Premier League and one of the biggest for the Video Assistant Referee system.
Sunday’s game had huge significance at both ends of the table, and relegation-battling West Ham thought they had earned a valuable point against leaders Arsenal when Callum Wilson found the net following a corner deep in added time.
After a VAR check, referee Chris Kavanagh reviewed the incident on the monitor and the goal was chalked off for a foul by Pablo on keeper David Raya before Wilson scored, ensuring Arsenal took all three points with a 1-0 win.
Pundits called it the biggest VAR call in the Premier League since the system was introduced in 2019 and have been raking over the melee in the penalty area – where various other fouls appeared to take place too – ever since.
“Is it a foul on the goalkeeper? Categorically yes,” referees body (PGMOL) chief Howard Webb said on the Match Officials Mic’d Up TV programme on Tuesday.
“We’ve said all season, including in pre-season briefings with the players, that if a goalkeeper is impeded by an opponent grabbing or holding their arms and therefore they can’t do their job, they’ll be penalised.”
“Raya can’t do what he would normally do in that situation, simply catch the ball or punch the ball, and they intervene, and they come to the right decision.”
Other possible fouls were considered by the VAR team and Webb agreed with their view that the most significant was that on the keeper.
Ironically, Arsenal have themselves faced criticism this season for crowding keepers at corners and there has been an increase overall in penalty area physicality.
“We have seen more involvement from set-piece coaches bringing players together in these areas, looking for those marginal gains,” Webb said.
“But we need to be vigilant. We need to identify those clear actions that are impactful. We’ve penalised more holding penalties than we did last year, but we’ve missed some as well.”
Arsenal’s win put them five points ahead of Manchester City, who play their game in hand against Crystal Palace on Wednesday, while West Ham remain third from bottom and two points off Tottenham Hotspur with two games remaining.
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