Dale Johnson Profile picture
Editor at ESPN FC. Lots of VAR, plus regulations, coefficients and permutations.

Jul 2, 2020, 9 tweets

Few tweets to go through West Ham United's disallowed goal against Chelsea, Tomas Soucek's ruled out for offside.

Obvious similarities to the Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton v Man United).

On both occasions the VAR was Jonathan Moss, so he was consistent. #WHUFC #CFC #WHUCHE

That it took 3 minutes and 30 seconds is not good.

Moss really didn't need to use full calibration, which added much time. Clear Michail Antonio was in front of the last defender and in an offside position from one line.

So this is now a subjective decision, not factual.

Personally - and as this is a subjective decision we can all have different opinions - I think this is more harsh than the Everton example.

For me, the position of Sigurdsson has a much greater impact on De Gea, than Antonio has on Kepa.

Once you take into account Jonathan Moss is the VAR, and he gave the Everton offside, this was always likely to be disallowed.

Remember, it doesn't matter if you think Kepa would have saved it, he only has to be impacted by the presence of Antonio in his line of sight.

Here's the offside calculation, which clearly shows there was no need for Jonathan Moss to go to full calibration.

It would have taken quite some effort for Antonio's head to be onside from full calibration.

This process accounted for 52 seconds out of the 3 mins 30 secs.

Of course, as this is a subjective decision we should be seeing the match referee go to the pitchside monitor next season to make the decision themselves.

One addition note on the penalty conceded by Wilfred Ndidi for Leicester at Everton. No doubt #EFC fans are wondering why this go this one, and not the Dele Alli handball against Tottenham...

Two additional images on the Tomas Soucek offside here. A good illustration of the impact Michail Antonio could have on Kepa.

And, of course, Cesar Azpilicueta.

I've just heard some pundits say this shouldn't have been given as a penalty by the VAR. Come on, now. It's a stonewall penalty.

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