David Moyes 'losing faith' with VAR after another decision goes against West Ham
Moyes angry despite West Ham's victory over Chelsea: "I'm beginning to lose complete faith in it. I don't want to whinge about decisions but that's what I am doing now," Moyes says of VAR
Thursday 2 July 2020 12:44, UK
David Moyes admitted he was "spewing" when another VAR decision went against West Ham but praised his team's resilience to beat Chelsea.
The Hammers, who went on to win 3-2, had controversially been denied an opener when Tomas Soucek's strike was scrubbed out by VAR as Michail Antonio was deemed to be offside.
Stockley Park took almost four minutes to chalk off the goal for another of those most marginal offside calls against Antonio, who was lying on the ground as Soucek lifted the ball over him.
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The official explanation from the Professional Game Match Officials Board was that "Antonio was in an offside position and directly in the line of vision of Kepa Arrizabalaga".
Soucek eventually netted, cancelling out Willian's penalty, and after the Brazilian equalised following Antonio's goal, there was late drama as Andriy Yarmolenko grabbed a precious winner for the Hammers in their fight for survival.
Moyes was furious with the video technology for the third time this season, after Robert Snodgrass' goal was ruled out in West Ham's 1-0 defeat at Sheffield United in January and VAR missed a handball by Davinson Sanchez in West Ham's 2-0 defeat to Tottenham.
"I'm beginning to lose complete faith in it," he said.
"I don't want to whinge about decisions but that's what I am doing now. Everyone tells me they think the goal should have stood."
Asked if he was starting to feel sorry for himself on the touchline, he said: "I did. I was spewing. I was thinking: 'Are we ever going to get a decision here?'
"Everything was going against us. Some of the things that have gone against West Ham have been really poor. I can't explain it. I said to the player that we need to make our own luck and it went our way tonight. We pushed hard and did a lot of good things - the players deserve a huge amount of credit, they are sticking to it and got their rewards."
The man at the heart of the controversial moment, Antonio, was delighted his team could shrug off yet more video assistant referee frustration.
"I really dislike VAR, I really dislike it," Antonio said with a smile.
"This season so many things have not gone our way. But today it didn't stop us, we just kept going, and we got the victory.
"It was hard, they play unbelievable football, and they kept pinning us in. It is a massive result.
"Man, there's been so many games where we've been just so close, and today we had a goal taken away from us, we went 1-0 down, we drew level and then went down again - but managed to come back and win it.
"It shows the belief we've got, the grit we've got and that we're not going to give up, we'll fight until the end."
Ref Watch: Nothing VAR could do but disallow the goal
Analysis from former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher:
"Basically it is all about line of vision for Kepa," he told Sky Sports News. "When you see the corner come across, Issa Diop flicks the ball on, Antonio ends up on the floor, Tomas Soucek shoots and it hits Antonio's body, comes back to Soucek.
"I thought when I first saw it, 'Good goal', but when you see the lines drawn across the pitch, when the second shot goes in, you can see Antonio's body is just offside in line with the laws of the game. He is directly in front of Kepa - it does not matter where the ball is, people say because the ball is on the ground - but because Kepa has got him in his vision right in front of him, that element of the law - 'line of vision' - has to be applied.
"The referees might not like it, other people might not like it, but unfortunately it is there, so therefore it has to be disallowed.
"Offside is not clear and obvious, offside is offside. You look at the elements of the law and is Antonio's body in an offside position, or part of it that can score? The answer is yes because his head is beyond the last defender Marcos Alonso.
"Is he directly in line with Kepa? Without doubt, he is less than a yard in front of him, it is almost as if he can touch him, he is definitely in line, the ball has gone past him. There is nothing the VAR could do other than say to the referee, 'I recommend you disallow this for offside.'"
