West
Ham manager David Moyes branded the decision to disallow a late goal for his
side at Chelsea as 'a ridiculously bad decision' following their 2-1 defeat
at Stamford Bridge.
Moments after Kai Havertz gave Chelsea a 2-1 lead, Maxwel Cornet struck what
he thought to be an equaliser after a mix-up between Reece James and Edouard
Mendy.
Referee Andy Madley was sent to the monitor by VAR Jarred Gillet at Stockley
Park to have another look at Cornet's goal for an apparent soft challenge on
Chelsea goalkeeper Mendy by Jarrod Bowen.
Madley ruled out the goal after looking at the monitor - much to Moyes'
anger and bewilderment.
"It is a scandalous decision, absolutely rotten from one of the supposedly
elite referees," Moyes told Sky Sports. "It doesn't say much about whoever
sent him over from VAR as well. It is an unbelievable decision against us.
Chelsea counterpart Thomas Tuchel said "It was a clear foul on the
goalkeeper."
Moyes continued his protests against the decision in his press conference,
saying he has "lost faith" in the refereeing in the game and hitting out at
Mendy for "faking an injury".
"The goalkeeper comes to take it and fumbles it out of his hands," said
Moyes. "Then he acted as if it was a shoulder injury. I'm amazed that VAR
sent the referee to the screen. It was a ridiculously bad decision.
"Today there is no excuse for that not to be a goal, none whatsoever. The
sad thing is that this is the level of our elite refereeing at the moment.
"They've got new people in charge who are trying to do something. I've lost
faith in them today in the people who are putting up for VAR. After watching
it, I can't see how the goal was not given.
"The referees said they were going to cut back on soft challenges and that
was unbelievably soft.
"Referees can make mistakes. I do not see that in a million years. I'm more
embarrassed for the guy in VAR than the referee because that's telling me
someone who doesn't understand football and shouldn't be near the game if
that is enough to put someone near the screen."
Moyes' anger at Mendy for fake shoulder
injury | Tuchel: It's a foul
West Ham captain Declan Rice agreed with his manager's assessment of the
call, branding it as "one of the worst VAR decisions made since it's come
into the game."
Moyes also paid particular reference to Mendy's involvement in getting the
goal disallowed, with the West Ham manager claiming the Senegalese
international deliberately faked a shoulder injury to get Cornet's effort
chalked off.
"The goalkeeper tried to do the same thing with the first goal as well,"
said Moyes. "He faked a shoulder injury. It didn't stop him from playing the
last 15 minutes or however long there was after that.
"Jarrod said he never touched the goalkeeper at all [for the second goal].
You can see it, he tries to jump him and straddle him. If there's anything
there's just a trailing foot. The goalkeeper had already mishandled the ball
and it moved four or five six yards and he couldn't recover."
When asked about the late VAR call in his own press conference, Tuchel said:
"There's a reason it went in our favour. I don't know if everyone shares the
opinion - it's a foul. The goal that we conceded in very similar in the
build-up to the situation at Tottenham."
Tuchel also insisted that West Ham's first goal - scored by Michail Antonio
- should have been disallowed.
When asked about the first West Ham goal, Tuchel said: "The second corner
should never have been a corner. When the shot came from Bowen and we had
the shot from Edu, it was a clear offside position from Antonio.
"I don't know how [it can be where] you can foul when you're in an offside
position against a goalkeeper and get a corner. That was the build-up to the
first corner, it was similar to against Tottenham but I stop talking."
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