West Ham striker Callum Wilson has broken his silence on his controversial goal disallowance against Arsenal, which could be decisive in the Premier League title race and battle against relegation.
Wilson appeared to earn West Ham a 1-1 draw and give Manchester City a step back in the title race when he fired in after Arsenal failed to clear a 95th-minute corner at the London Stadium last Sunday.
The point would have served as a major boost in the Hammers’ fight against relegation, however, following a lengthy VAR review which saw referee Chris Kavanagh instructed to check with his sideline guard, the goal was disallowed by Pablo’s fine cross by Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya.
It was assumed that Pablo was preventing Raya from looking for the ball in the box by putting his arm on Raya’s chest and holding his left arm. However, this decision, which gave Arsenal a 1-0 victory which made them leave City with five points at the top, left West Ham burning.
Although the replays clearly show Pablo putting his arm on Raya’s chest and holding his arm, there were also several possible violations by Arsenal players as they defended their box. Declan Rice was holding Konstantinos Mavrapanos and, perhaps fittingly, Leandro Trossard had both arms around Pablo’s waist as he tried to attack the ball.
The released VAR audio shows that VAR Darren England instructed Kavanagh to look into both those incidents and Raya’s foul. However, Kavanagh dismissed possible mistakes from the West Ham players as “nothing” and ruled out the goal.
West Ham lodged a formal complaint with PGMOL, although the head of the refereeing body, Howard Webb, praised Kavanagh for punishing ‘a clear and flagrant offence’.
Wilson: West Ham’s rating should have stood
Wilson, however, is adamant that the goal should have stood, pointing to possible mistakes by Trossard and Rice and the inconsistency in how similar incidents have been judged during the season.
“For me it’s against us, are you saying it’s bad? It could be,” Wilson told Sky Sports. “However, there are similar incidents that have happened throughout the season.
“I just think that if there’s consistency there’s no complaints from anybody and I think with this specific incident five seconds before it’s obvious that there are other mistakes there. So, if you’re going to pull one out you’re going to have to pull them all. I think he should have just seen it outside and thought it was just the bags that were in the box.
“I will agree [it should’ve stood] because I scored one goal. But two, we see many teams today doing the same situation in the box blocking the goalkeepers.
“We analyzed Arsenal’s set-pieces before the game and there was a lot going on there. That doesn’t just mean they do it, everyone does it.”
After this dispute, Webb said that it will be considered that there is more that can be done by handling mistakes in the given situations.
“This season is very different from the previous ones in terms of the number of people who are contacted in the penalty area, and it creates a challenge for the officials,” he explained.
“Of course we will continue to discuss with all the people I mentioned at the beginning about the type of game they want to see, because we have seen the involvement of young coaches bringing players together in these areas, looking at those small benefits.”
West Ham are two points behind Tottenham, who were held 1-1 by Leeds United a day after the Hammers lost to Arsenal, with two games left to avoid the third relegation zone.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s men visit Wilson’s old club Newcastle United on Sunday, two days before Spurs make the short trip to London rivals Chelsea.
