David Moyes was again left cursing West Ham’s luck after the longest VAR check in Premier League history saw his side denied a dramatic late winner against Aston Villa.
The Hammers were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw after Tomas Soucek’s close-range effort was ruled out deep into stoppage time.
The video assistant reviewed the incident for almost five minutes before eventually asking on-field referee Jarred Gillett to consult the pitchside monitor, with the Australian subsequently disallowing the effort. In total, the check took five minutes and 37 seconds.
The Irons had earlier seen another goal ruled out for handball by Michail Antonio, while in recent games against Burnley and Freiburg they have been denied potential penalties for similar offences.
"Burnley last week, Freiburg last week, two today,” Moyes said. “Every one of them has gone against us on handball situations so it’s hard to take.
“You’ve got VAR, so if VAR thinks it’s right they’ve got a chance to look at things so they must be right.
"I think football people see things differently. Maybe that’s where I see some of them differently. I think undoubtedly you might think that some of them hit people’s arms and it does and if that’s the rule we have to go with the rule. But we had two that hit people’s arms last week, not one of them went our way. Not one of them.”
The Hammers were excellent in a front-footed first-half display, with Antonio’s first goal since August putting the home side ahead at the interval.
Villa responded after the break, with Unai Emery making a double change at half-time that swung the momentum and substitute Nicolo Zaniolo eventually levelling the contest.
“I thought we performed really well in the first half, we got what’s looked like the second goal, and I thought Aston Villa played really well in the second half,” Moyes added.
“They put us on the back-foot in the second half. But I thought our performance was really good overall and we still went on to create a few chances as well so really pleased with how the players played, they did a great job today.”
