West Ham had a disastrous first half against Chelsea, conceding two poor goals and missing out on what seemed like a clear penalty that could have brought them back into the game.
Enzo Maresca’s team started aggressively and capitalized on weak defending in the fourth minute when Nicolas Jackson latched onto a pass from Jadon Sancho, running almost 30 yards without challenge before slipping the ball through Alphonse Areola’s legs.
The Senegalese striker added a second goal 15 minutes later, timing his run perfectly to beat a weak offside trap and finishing with the outside of his foot.
Chelsea looked dominant and nearly escaped further trouble in the 28th minute when Wesley Fofana pulled Crysencio Summerville inside the penalty area.
Although the contact began outside the box, it seemed to continue into the area before Summerville went down, expecting a penalty from referee Samuel Barrott.
Unfortunately for Summerville, the referee didn’t agree, and the VAR upheld the decision.
The Premier League 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 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.’
