Jarrod Bowen during West Ham’s defeat to Chelsea. (Image: Getty)
said “we trust the VAR” after goal was controversially not disallowed in their 2-1 win over , despite Levi Colwill appearing to have fouled the Hammers’ captain.
The video technology took a long look at ‘s equaliser, after Bowen had put the visitors into a first-half lead at Stamford Bridge, but ultimately decided that there was no reason to go against Stuart Attwell’s on-field decision.
Questions were posed over whether Marc Cucurella was in an offside position, but there was no conclusive evidence that substitute had touched the ball and played the left-back offside.
VAR concluded that Cucurella was in an offside position when the cross first came in, but did not go back and look at .
In the build-up to the goal, the defender barged Bowen to the floor, but play continued and ended up with the ball in the back of West Ham’s net.
The Match Centre explained: “The referee’s call of goal was checked and confirmed by the VAR as there was no factual evidence that Guiu made contact with the ball in the build-up, therefore there was no offside offence.”
Levi Colwill pushing Jarrod Bowen to the floor. (Image: Sky Sports.)
, on match commentary for Sky Sports, was among many to dispute whether the goal should have stood and he felt that Bowen was fouled.
But the winger instead focused on West Ham’s own performance and their reaction to the goal, telling Sky: “We trust the VAR, the technology is there for a reason. We didn’t get the decision [for their equaliser] and we had to react better than we did.
“It was 1-1 and we had to do better than we did. The crowd are really good here when they get behind the team and it gave them a lift. Little things went against us but I think we have 12 days before the next game, at home.
“A lot of different positive things, we’ve got players coming back from injury. Performances have been a lot better since the new manager has come in. It’s an exciting time to be coming back into the squad. Good times ahead for us hopefully.”
Assessing the controversy, icon Neville said: “I actually thought there was a foul on Bowen a lot earlier in the move.
“I think it was a foul, look at that, Colwill stepping across Bowen. I think it’s considered to be too far back but I think that is an obvious foul. I thought so at the time. The Bowen foul has to be spotted.
“I would be furious if I was West Ham. I think the referee and assistant referee are both looking at the game from that side, they should spot that. Colwill just goes and takes him out so he can’t get towards [goalkeeper Filip] Jorgensen.”