West Ham slipped to a controversial 2-1 defeat against London rivals Chelsea today at Stamford Bridge.
Thomas Tuchel’s side came into the game under pressure after losing against Southampton in midweek, and their first-half display did little to inspire confidence with neither team able to muster a shot on goal.
Just after the hour mark West Ham forward Jarrod Bowen finally produced a moment of quality when his volley from outside the area was well saved by Eduoard Mendy. The Hammers wouldn’t have to wait long to find the back of the net though with David Moyes side scoring from the resulting corner, with Michail Antonio bundling the ball home after a game of pinball in Chelsea’s six-yard box.
Blues boss Tuchel brought on England international Ben Chilwell for summer signing Marc Cucurella and it would turn out to be an inspired change. On 76 minutes Chilwell did brilliantly to spin 180 degrees after heading the ball in the area before clipping the ball past the onrushing West Ham goalkeeper.
Then with two minutes left on the clock under-fire attacker, Kai Havertz meet a Chilwell cross and hammered a volley into the Hammers net.
There was still time for more drama though when West Ham’s summer signing Maxwell Cornet fired into the roof of the Chelsea goal deep into injury time. However, VAR would controversially step in and adjudge that Bowen had fouled Mendy in the build, a decision that has been widely described by the football community as comical.
That’s up there with one of the worst VAR decisions made since it’s come into the game. Shambles 😂
— Declan Rice (@_DeclanRice) September 3, 2022
Speaking afterwards West Ham boss Moyes was furious that his side had been denied a hard-fought point.
“It was a scandalous decision, incredible – the goalkeeper spills it about five yards, acts because he cannot recover the ball,” Moyes told BBC Sport.
”The referee gave it and I don’t know who sent him from VAR, but I always thought he would say it is a goal once he went to the screen.
“I have seen it from all angles and find it incredibly difficult to see how that is chalked off. I don’t know who in VAR sent him there.
“We are maybe not at our fluid best yet but we are showing a resilience, we are building a new team at the moment and are starting to do the basics well.
“We should have got a draw, it might have been a fair result, I don’t think in the end we deserved to lose the game. We didn’t lose that one today, we got ourselves back.”
