West Ham endured a nightmare first half against Chelsea, conceding two dreadful goals before being denied what appeared to be a certain penalty that could have dragged them back into the contest.
Enzo Maresca’s side raced out of the traps and benefited from some generous defending in just the fourth minute when Nicolas Jackson was allowed to latch onto Jadon Sancho’s pass and run nearly 30 yards unchallenged before slotting the ball through Alphonse Areola’s legs.
The Senegal international doubled the lead a quarter of an hour later when he beat a non-existent offside trap and finished expertly with the outside of his foot.
Chelsea were threatening to run riot but were fortunate to escape in the 28th minute when Wesley Fofana dragged back Crysencio Summerville inside the penalty area.
Contact was initiated outside the 18-yard box but appeared to continue before the summer signing from Leeds hit the deck, expecting referee Samuel Barrott to point to the spot.
Unfortunately for the Dutchman, the match official didn’t agree and his decision was upheld by the VAR.
The Premier League quickly cleared up the confusion by tweeting an explanation that read: ‘The referee’s call of no penalty for the challenge by Fofana on Summerville is checked and confirmed by VAR – deeming that this was not sustained holding.’
Former Chelsea and West Ham legend Joe Cole, working for TNT Sport, felt the Hammers had been hard done by but felt it was the type of incident VAR should not be invovled in.
He said: ‘I think this is a penalty. Look he gets hold of him. You see the angle here. If you put your hands on someone in the box in the modern day era and it’s obstructing?
‘You can see the West Ham manager is very upset. Also, what we need to consider is with VAR we didn’t like the sanitised version.
‘I think it is a penalty and West Ham will be very very disappointed but we don’t want to see VAR get involved.
‘Ultimately he’s the professional and he’s got the best view in the house but I can really feel for West Ham fans on that occasion.’
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