Former Liverpool and England midfielder Danny Murphy and ex-Aston Villa and England striker Dion Dublin believe all three of West Ham United’s goals vs Fulham on Sunday should have been disallowed.
The Hammers came from behind after Andreas Pereira’s early strike, with Jarrod Bowen (penalty), Gianluca Scamacca, and Michail Antonio all getting on the scoresheet for David Moyes’ side in a 3-1 win at the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
However, it could have been a different story as the major turning point was shortly after the hour mark when Italian striker Scamacca got his third goal in as many games to make it 2-1, dinking the ball over goalkeeper Bernd Leno after being played through on goal by Lucas Paqueta.
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There was a lengthy stoppage before the goal was given. First, VAR checked for an offside, with Scamacca being deemed onside, but then, they looked at a possible handball, with the goal being awarded due to there not being enough conclusive evidence that Scamacca did handball it.
However, Dublin believes that Scamacca did touch the ball with his hand and that the goal should have been disallowed for handball.
“The thing to look at here is the ball, the revolutions,” he said on BBC programme Match of the Day 2. “When it goes back off his foot, it touches his foot, it’s not spinning and you see his hand move slightly.
“We are talking just the slightest of touches. He knows it’s touched his hand and he’s thinking to himself ‘I’ve got away with one here’ and it touched his hand.”
Next, Murphy and Dublin discussed Antonio’s goal, with the replays showing the ball hit his hand before he went through on goal. Antonio’s initial effort was saved by Leno, but after captain Tim Ream ran into the goalkeeper, it gave Antonio the chance to score with his second attempt.
The explanation for the goal standing was that because the goal was deemed to be on a separate phase of play, then the goal stood. Dublin disagreed with the ruling and felt that because Antonio benefited from the ball hitting his hand and it should have been ruled out. Murphy agreed with him, comparing it to Marcus Rashford’s disallowed goal for handball for Manchester United against Everton on Sunday evening.
“It’s a goal, isn’t it? Dublin added. “They are benefiting from it touching his hand.”
Murphy added: “The simple thing for me is if you go by the letter of the law, they should be disallowed, right? Because of handball. Our opinion is the same I think, none of them, including Rashford’s.”
Dublin responded to that, saying: “They are basically the same thing, they are basically handball.”
“They are unintentional, minuscule touches of the hand, although you could argue Antonio was a bit more than miniscule,” added Murphy. “I don’t think we want to see goals ruled out for that. The letter of the law, if we go by it, they should all be disallowed.”
There was also controversy surrounding West Ham’s equaliser, where Craig Dawson won a foul after being blocked off by Pereira at the end of a Bowen corner. Pereira had been blocked two or three times by Dawson before being warned by referee Chris Kavanagh. Despite the warning, Pereira again blocked Dawson, however, replays showed that Dawson appeared to catch Pereira with his arm in the incident.
Murphy felt that an earlier tangle between the two would have deserved a penalty, but not the one that was actually given.
“I agree with Moyesy that Pereira is absolutely stupid for trying to block his way,” said Murphy. “He gets a warning, that’s ridiculous. If the ball had come in off that corner, it is a penalty. He gets away with a warning, he is lucky, so he’s in the ref’s head and I get that, human nature of the ref.
“Actually, it’s not a penalty and the reason it is not a penalty is because the first contact made is a forearm in the face. How that is a penalty is just beyond belief but I understand what happened before has made the ref think is a block.
“The first contact, which is all you can make a decision on, is Dawson and you can tell by his face he doesn’t think it’s a pen, he forearms him. So in effect, what we are saying is Fulham have won the game 1-0, they can have a drink of wine tonight and be happy with the performance.”
Dublin added: “You basically want the two of them to get a yellow card, that’s what you basically want because they are both just being silly aren’t they? They are. Terrible defending, terrible attacking.”
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