West Ham 1 Aston Villa 1: Furious David Moyes confronts referee after Hammers denied 96th minute winner by VAR
A HAT-TRICK of disallowed goals denied West Ham a huge victory over Champions League chasing Aston Villa as a furious David Moyes confronted the referee at full-time.
He was left with his head in his hands at the end of a five minute VAR check in injury time which denied a late winner for handball against Tomas Soucek.
Michail Antonio ended his seven month wait for a goal to put the Hammers ahead after 29 minutes.
The hosts were going gung-ho again after their five-star showing in Europe four days earlier, but could not add a second after having two goals ruled out either side of the break – one by Mohammed Kudus and another for Antonio.
Having aggressively pinned Villa back in the first half, Unai Emery turned the tables with two half-time changes, laying siege to the West Ham goal before Zaniolo, another second-half sub, finally grabbed a leveller on 79 minutes.
Konstantinos Mavropanos thought he had secured a famous victory right at the death, but an agonisingly long VAR check, where each frame was pored over for an age, resulted in ref Jarred Gillett being sent to the monitor by VAR Tony Harrington.
With the clock having gone past 100 minutes, Gillett final ruled out the goal – leaving Moyes staring in utter disbelief, before having a very brief exchange with the Aussie ref at full time.
Moyes went on the front foot on Thursday night and saw his side put five past German side Freiburg.
Despite facing stronger opposition in Aston Villa, the Scot stuck with an attacking side with Michail Antonio keeping his place spearheading the front line of Lucas Paqueta, Jarrod Bowen and Kudus.
Emery– looking to consolidate a top four spot after Tottenham’s defeat on Saturday – handed Jhon Duran, who West Ham tried to sign in January, a first Premier League start.
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Fans have been calling for more proactive football all season and, now everyone is fit and firing once more, West Ham responded – for 45 minutes at least.
The front four were harassing Villa’s defenders, pinning the visitors in their own half at times – something the Hammers are hardly known for.
Chances started coming their way as a result. Tomas Soucek was unfortunate to deflect Paqueta’s effort wide of the target before Vladimir Coufal drew a good save from Emiliano Martinez before hooking the rebound wide of the post.
It was the attacking approach which brought the opener. Antonio battled Clement Lenglet down the left and won the ball from the Frenchman yards from the byline.
The ball ended up with Coufal down the right, with the Czech whipping a delightful cross to the far post, where Antonio dived across Ezri Konsa and headed home his first goal since August.
It was a delightful cross but Emery will have been baffled by the inability of his defenders to stop Antonio reaching the ball.
The Champions League challengers have a fearsome forward line but have struggled to keep things tight at the back in recent weeks.
In most cases, Watkins & Co have dug them out going forwards, but the visitors were struggling to get anything going on the front foot – causing Emery to hook Duran for Moussa Diaby at the break while Matty Cash replaced Lenglet.
West Ham could have been well clear by that point, however.
Kudus, who lashed one effort wide of the near post on the break, saw goal ruled out for a foul by Antonio on Martinez in the build-up.
Minutes into the second half the Hammers thought they had doubled their lead again, with Antonio turning in Bowen’s corner after out-manoeuvring Martinez.
Those watching from Stockley Park decided Antonio had scored using his arm, though replays were hardly clear.
Having shown they can do the flash stuff in the first half, it was back to the more functional style for most of the second for West Ham.
Emery’s changes had lifted the visitors and West Ham were having to sit tight and hold on for spells.
Coufal was battling well with Rogers down Villa’s left while Emerson threw himself in front of Leon Bailey’s near post effort down the other flank.
Youri Tielemans tested Areola and Bailey then sent a good chance high and wide but Villa were building and seemingly getting ever closer to a leveller as West Ham dug in, Moyes sending on defender Ben Johnson for goalscorer Antonio.
Areola was once again doing his bit at the other end, saving superbly from Konsa’s close ranger effort – all in front of Colombian goalkeeping great, Rene Higuita.
There is only so much a keeper can do, however, when the chances keep coming.
Tielemans picked a ball through to Diaby down the right, with the winger beating Edson Alvarez before cutting back for Zaniolo to fire home first time past the Frenchman.
Kudus’ runs on the break were giving West Ham hope of a winner and it looked like they would grab one in injury time when he cut back for James Ward-Prowse, but Cash put his body on the line to stop it.
To cap off the added time chaos, the whole of the London Stadium had to sit through the VAR check with no clue as to what was going on.
Ward-Prowse’s corner had been turned towards goal by Mavropanos before Bowen and Soucek threw themselves at the ball, with the Czech’s arm getting a touch in the process.
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