West Ham striker Callum Wilson has broken his silence on his controversial disallowed goal against Arsenal, which could ultimately prove decisive in both the Premier League title race and the battle against relegation.
Wilson appeared to have earned West Ham a 1-1 draw and handed the initiative in the title race back to Manchester City when he fired in after Arsenal had failed to clear a corner in the 95th minute at the London Stadium last Sunday.
A point would have served as a huge boost to the Hammers’ fight against the drop, however, following a lengthy VAR review that saw referee Chris Kavanagh instructed to consult his pitchside monitor, the goal was disallowed for a foul by Pablo on Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya.
It was deemed that Pablo was impeding Raya from claiming the ball into the box by putting an arm across Raya’s chest and holding his left arm. However, the decision, which gave Arsenal a 1-0 win that sent them five points clear of City at the top, left West Ham furious.
While the replays did clearly show Pablo pinning his arm on Raya’s chest and holding his arm, there were also several possible infringements by Arsenal players as they defended their box. Declan Rice had a hold of Konstantinos Mavrapanos and, perhaps more pertinently, Leandro Trossard had both arms around the waist of Pablo as he moved to attack the ball.
The released VAR audio reveals that VAR Darren England had instructed Kavanagh to look at both those incidents as well as the foul on Raya. However, Kavanagh dismissed the potential fouls on the West Ham players as “nothing” and ruled the goal out.
West Ham submitted an official complaint to PGMOL, though the head of the refereeing body, Howard Webb, praised Kavanagh for penalising a ‘clear and obvious offence’.
Wilson: West Ham equaliser should have stood
Wilson, though, is adamant the goal should have stood, pointing to the potential fouls by Trossard and Rice and the inconsistency in terms of how similar incidents have been refereed over the course of the season.
“For me it’s against us, are you saying it’s a foul? Possibly,” Wilson told Sky Sports. “But of course, there’s incidents that have happened throughout the season that are similar.
“I just think if there’s consistency then there’s no complaints from anybody and I think with that specific incident five seconds before it there’s obviously other fouls that are in there. So, if you’re going to pull up one you’re going to have to pull up all of them. I think he probably should have just let it see itself out and think it’s just handbags in the box and it is what it is. But it wasn’t to be.
“I’m going to say yes [it should’ve stood] because I scored the goal for one. But for two, we see a lot of teams nowadays doing a similar situation in the box blocking goalkeepers.
“We analysed Arsenal’s set-pieces before the match and there was a lot of that going on in there. That’s not just to say they do it, everybody does it.”
In the wake of the controversy, Webb said there will be an analysis into whether more can be done in officiating fouls at set-piece situations.
“This season’s been a little bit more unique than previous ones about the number of contacts in the penalty area, and it does create a challenge for the officials,” he explained.
“We’ll certainly continue consulting with all of the people I mentioned earlier about the type of game they want to see, because we have seen more involvement from set-piece coaches bringing players together in these areas, looking for those marginal gains.”
West Ham are two points adrift of Tottenham, who were held to a 1-1 draw by Leeds United a day after the Hammers’ loss to Arsenal, with two games to play in the battle to avoid the third relegation spot.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s men visit Wilson’s old side Newcastle United on Sunday, two days before Spurs make the short trip to London rivals Chelsea.
