West Ham 3-1 Fulham - The look back

Oct 10, 2022

Yesterday’s game was one of those that will make us all sick of the word ‘VAR’ by, well, today probably.

The Whites fell to three contentious goals at the London stadium, and the video assistant referee had a big hand in two of them, which also included hands of a different kind.

It started so well. Andreas Pereira capped off a fine counter-attack to score his first Fulham goal from a tight angle, and it looked like we were on our way.

The hero turned into a villain (kind of), as the first half drew to a close. Pereira’s tussle with West Ham defender Dawson at a corner caught the eye of the official not one or twice, but three times, and he awarded a spot kick, despite Dawson being the one to hit a clothesline that a WWE wrestler would be proud of.

The decisions got worse. Scamacca put West Ham two up, despite the ball clearly hitting his hand and elbow. It was so obvious that even the forward didn’t celebrate; instead he waited awkwardly for VAR, which inexplicably cleared him of wrongdoing.

So it was little surprise, then, that Antonio figured he’d get in on the act too. The substitute pushed the ball ahead of himself and Joao Palhinha using some kind of volleyball technique, before capitalising on a mix-up between Leno (who’d been fantastic) and Ream (who’s been fantastic so far this season). 3-1 and we left with nothing.

But, hey – we’re still in the top half, and we’re back at home on Saturday. That’s a tasty one to say the least.

WHAT THEY SAID

▪️Marco Silva: Until the penalty we were clearly the best team on the pitch. West Ham have a lot of quality and come from two really good seasons but Fulham Football Club were clearly the best team of the pitch.

▪️Andreas Pereira: Proud of the team today! No words needed for what happened! We recover and go again next week together!

▪️Joe Sansom: Fingers crossed Tete and Mitro are back for Bournemouth. Despite the obviously mitigating circumstances, we really need to stop leaking goals. There is only so much Leno can do. Expecting to see Diop come in.