West Ham were left furious on Tuesday night after a “joke” penalty decision handed Nottingham Forest a crucial three points in the Premier League relegation battle.
West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek has described the penalty that cost Nottingham Forest as a “joke” after VAR conspired to deepen the Hammers’ disastrous rout. Morgan Gibbs-White’s 89th-minute penalty gave Forest a 2-1 win on Tuesday night, ending Nuno Espirito Santo’s side’s winless run in 10 games.
West Ham took the lead in the 13th minute when Murillo headed a corner kick into his own goal. The home side thought they had taken a 2-0 lead with Crisencio Somerville’s shot from the edge of the box, but VAR found him offside in the build-up.
“VAR checked the referee’s decision on the goal and found that (Tati) Castellanos was in an offside position during the build-up and recommended that the goal be set aside,” Premier League Match Center wrote in a statement to X.
Forest then equalized with Nicolas Dominguez’s looping header from a corner kick. Things got even worse for the Hammers late in the game when referee Tony Harrington was advised by referee Tony Harrington to go to the pitchside monitor.
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Harrington ruled that West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Arreola fouled Gibbs-White by catching him in the face as he tried to punch the ball clear. The match center explained, “As a result of the VAR review, the referee has reversed his original decision of not penalizing Nottingham Forest.” “The referee announces: “After review, the goalkeeper has fouled Nottingham Forest’s number 10. My final decision is a penalty.”
Gibbs-White came from behind to beat Arreola and open a seven-point gap between 17th-placed Forest and 18th-placed West Ham. It was a huge result that caused an immediate backlash.
“For me it’s a joke,” Soucek told Sky Sports. “I just looked at it again and I think in a situation like this you can get 20 penalties a game. I came to the Premier League because I thought it was the toughest league in the world and we are all warriors and warriors, but when you can’t touch the players this is more like basketball. This is what I saw.”
“(Arreola) was the same in the dressing room. He didn’t know who was fouled. He came to get the ball and I think I cleared it, but it was already out. I didn’t know why there was VAR and then a penalty. So it was tough for all of us.”
“To be honest, I got punched in the face and I had no idea what was going on. When he said it was a penalty, I came to my senses,” Gibbs-White told Sky Sports.
“There’s no question about it. We practiced yesterday as well. It was a safety measure, but we ended up getting three points. That’s what we want to do and we want to go into the game believing. We haven’t needed a kickoff, a fresh start this year. We had that one-yard difference in the first half, but we picked it up in the second half and were good again.”
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