West Ham United midfielder Tomas Soucek has recently spoken out about one thing that happened in the Hammers’ draw with Aston Villa last month, branding the incident as “crazy”.
It’s been a difficult few weeks for Aston Villa, who have claimed one win from their previous five Premier League fixtures to start the run-in to the end of the season in a shaky fashion.
The Villans are still well-poised to fight for a top-four finish however, Unai Emery will be hoping to see better results come of his side’s efforts.
One win, two draws and a loss have made up Villa’s last five in the Premier League fixtures, with one game still being spoken about for a controversial moment in the dying embers.
Villa’s trip to West Ham was a shot for the Villans to redeem themselves after losing 4-0 at home to Spurs the game prior however, the fixture almost ended with another loss had it not been for VAR intervention.
The West Ham v Aston Villa incident that left Tomas Soucek frustrated
At the London Stadium, the hosts were denied a late winner as Konstantinos Mavropanos thought he’d won the game in stoppage time.
A lengthy stop in play to allow VAR to check the scrappy goal left fans incredibly frustrated as both sides waited anxiously to learn their fate.
Eventually, referee Jarred Gillett ruled the goal out due to VAR spotting that Tomas Soucek’s arm had touched the ball before it crossed the line, seeing the game end 1-1.
After play was stopped for a perplexing five and a half minutes, many were quick to criticise VAR, not only for the denial of the goal but for the time taken to come to a decision.
While the game was in mid-March, Soucek has admitted that the decision still aggravates him when speaking on West Ham’s official podcast, Iron Cast.
“It was so bad because it was like the third time the referee stopped the goal, so it was like the 92nd minute, so this one was like crazy.”
“I knew that I got a touch but I didn’t score and by the rules they say that if I touch the hand and it’s not going in the goal, it’s just a pass then it should count.”
“And the VAR was like six minutes, so it was crazy. I just hoped that we could go on and win the game but the ref stopped it so I was disappointed.”
Aston Villa’s draw with West Ham came as a relief after VAR controversy
The standard of officiating in the Premier League this season has been simply unacceptable however, Villa will be somewhat relieved of its intervention during the game at the London Stadium.
The Hammers had two goals chalked off for handball in two decisions that ultimately earned the Villans a point on a day where they were far from their best.
There have been many occasions where Villa have been on the wrong side of a VAR controversy although, the Irons took the brunt of the events that happened in last month’s draw.
