Visiting Arsenal's Emirates Stadium in round 19 of the Premier League on the evening of December 28, coach David Moyes' team still played confidently and scored the opening goal after only 15 minutes of play.
After a pass from the left wing was blocked by an Arsenal defender, Jarrod Bowen still managed to rush into the penalty area to cross for Tomas Soucek to tap the ball from close range to beat goalkeeper David Raya.
Bowen passed the ball from the left touchline for Tomas Soucek to score (Photo: EPA).
However, controversy arose when the video assistant referee (VAR) technology intervened to check whether the ball had gone out when Bowen passed it back, as it was a difficult situation to distinguish.
The rules state that the entire ball must go over the line for a goal to be disallowed, but despite the VAR team consulting multiple camera angles, they were unable to find the correct angle, as Bowen's thigh blocked the view of the ball and the touchline.
VAR technology could not determine whether the ball had gone out of line or not when Bowen's thigh blocked the view (Photo: Talksport).
Although it took a long time, the VAR referee team decided to recognize Soucek's goal to help West Ham take a 1-0 lead.
In the second half, the away team doubled the gap after only 10 minutes thanks to a goal by Konstantinos Mavropanos, bringing a 2-0 victory to The Hammer.
Arsenal players argue with the referee about their team's loss (Photo: Getty).
However, many Arsenal fans expressed anger at their team's loss in the first half, believing that VAR technology made a mistake in not determining that the ball had crossed the goal line before Bowen passed it to Soucek to score.
"That ball definitely went out! VAR hates Arsenal again," said one angry Gunners fan. "Crazy decision," said another.
"Spending so much money on VAR technology, in the end it still can't distinguish right from wrong in this situation," another disappointed person said.
The defeat to West Ham prevented Arsenal from reclaiming the top spot from Liverpool, as the Gunners dropped to second place and are two points behind the Reds after the first half of the Premier League season ended.
This weekend, Arsenal will visit Fulham with the expectation of a win.
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