Chelsea was denied a late penalty shout as they produced one of the close football scores of the weekend in the Premier League. In the 88th minute, Tomas Soucek attempted to block Conor Gallagher’s low shot, but the West Ham midfielder was struck on the hand instead. The West Ham players appealed, but referee Craig Pawson ignored them, and VAR did not step in. When January newcomers Enzo Fernandez and Joao Felix combined for the latter’s first Chelsea goal (16) on his return from suspension, Graham Potter’s revamped team had earlier started strongly and appeared like they may punish the hosts. However, West Ham survived the early rain and took advantage of Chelsea’s shoddy defending when Jarrod Bowen flicked on Vladimir Coufal’s cross, allowing the unmarked Emerson to score at the far post against his former team (28) despite the early storm.
After that, Chelsea struggled to have an advantage over their opponents and West Ham thought they had won the game when Soucek scored from close range, only for VAR to rule it out for offside. Chelsea had been restricted to goalless draws in their previous two games. The biggest controversy, however, was still to come as Chelsea was denied a penalty despite Gallagher’s shot, fired from the edge of the box and obviously touching the Czech midfielder on the hand. Potter, in his post-match news conference, jokingly described it as a “nice save.” The draw puts additional pressure on Potter as the Blues drop to ninth place, nine points behind fourth-place Newcastle. While West Ham stays in 15th place and extends their unbeaten streak to four games.
In more than three hours of Premier League play before the game, Chelsea had not scored, but it appeared like they may have found their groove early on at the London Stadium. In fact, just moments after West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta appeared to have dislocated his shoulder, Felix actually had the ball in the net before his first goal but had it called out for offside. Following the required substitution of Paqueta for Soucek, Chelsea quickly made a breakthrough as Felix had the time and space to score from Fernandez’s enticing cross.
At that point, Chelsea was poised to take control of the game as Fernandez controlled play from the middle of the field. Felix, Mykhailo Mudryk, Noni Madueke, and Kai Havertz made up Chelsea’s new-look front line. After cleverly finishing off from Mudryk’s reverse ball, Havertz had another goal disallowed for offside, but West Ham held on and then took advantage of Chelsea’s poor defense to tie the score when Emerson sprang up at the far post to score against his former team.
Before then, Michail Antonio’s flicked attempt from Bowen’s cross was stopped by West Ham goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. However, Chelsea subsequently generated a number of additional chances before the half, with Madueke forcing a superb save from Lukasz Fabianski. However, rather than continuing where they left off, Chelsea’s attacking threat significantly diminished as West Ham gained in strength and Felix was unable to duplicate his significant first-half performance. Potter’s team had a pair of half-chances, with Havertz heading wide from a center by replacement Ben Chilwell and a Reece James free-kick flashing wide off the top of Antonio’s head.
However, West Ham resisted, and when Soucek bundled home from a free kick after Declan Rice’s initial effort had been saved, the London Stadium exploded in celebration. However, a thorough VAR check eventually properly ruled the goal out for offside. However, after Gallagher’s attempt struck Soucek’s hand, referee Pawson allowed play on and made Potter and his team accept another point. There was no such VAR check for Chelsea.
“I can’t say anything because it hasn’t been given. It wouldn’t have been reversed if it had been given, but it hasn’t. To me, it appeared to be a handball. Tomas Soucek’s ability to descend so swiftly and make such a rescue surprised me. He made a wise decision to stop,” Chelsea head coach Graham Potter said. “I have nothing to say about VAR. They are all people. Every choice and behavior is a guarantee that you won’t encounter the same person again when a new person is there. Consistency is incredibly difficult to achieve. Some work out for you and some don’t. You must acknowledge that.”
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