Chelsea 2-1 West Ham
Referee Stuart Attwell has much to answer for following a dubious performance at Stamford Bridge last night.
The Hammers’ Jarrod Bowen was systematically fouled throughout the game, including in the build-up to Chelsea’s equaliser.
Chelsea’s midfielder Moisés Caicedo was never discouraged from fouling the West Ham captain as the home team put his recently recovered fractured foot to the test. Quite how the former Brighton player avoided a card is anyone’s guess, but there was a clear point during the game when Bowen looked to the fourth official for protection.
As the old saying goes… what is not stopped is encouraged, and so it continued to such an extent that Mohammed Kudus sought retribution following persistent fouling against him. Fortunately, the Ghanaian pulled out of his two-footed horror challenge at the last minute, but he clearly felt the need to protect himself.
Whilst he is something of a hot-head, it was the type of game that needed Edson Álvarez to step in and make Caicedo think twice. However, the Ecuadorian continued prowling with menace, and it only looked a matter of time before Bowen was sent for an early return to the MRI scanner.
The lead-up to the home team’s equaliser featured yet another foul on Bowen, but the referee chose not to stop play, and Chelsea scored. Who knows whether West Ham would have gone on to win the game, but there was certainly a momentum shift following the incident.
What followed was a period of time-wasting that was allowed to continue unchecked. At one point, Cole Palmer seemed to make no attempt to take a corner as the clock ticked down, and he never received any sort of hurry-up from officials.
At best, the officiating was incompetent, but there is little doubt in my mind that it swung the result in Chelsea’s favour following a decent showing by Graham Potter’s Hammers
Yes,it’s always Awful Attwell.Always remembered as the bloke that gave a ghost goal.Dont care how far back it is a foul is a foul and affected the outcome.Was VAR snorting a line with Coote at the time.Goons!!!
Official’s look like school boys trying to ref a adults game. There is no consistency between games, official’s or var. The people responsible for this need sacking and get someone in who can organise and raise standards. This is two recent Chelsea games where poor referee decisions have probably lost us the game. Make you wonder if there isn’t something more underhanded taking place.
Can’t have little old West Ham taking points and upsetting one of the self entitled and self proclaimed big six can we now.. that just won’t do will it now
The EPL refereeing has been abysmal all season. Whether it is the desire to seem important, incompetence or old fashioned graft is irrelevant, they need to lose the power to make calls.
VAR is a PIA but needn’t be. This isn’t horse racing where offside is determined by rulers. If you can’t see offside in real time replay – it isn’t offside. Diving offenses should be treated ruthlessly through after-the fact reviews. And fouls should always be called, and penalised when recurrent.
Replace the on-field referees with updated, whistle blowing bots, like those they use at the airport to clean floors.
I don’t know how atwell is given premership status as a ref so in his opinion it’s if it is off the ball that doesn’t constitute a foul No1 cucurella is clearly offside when the cross comes into the area ,vat couldn’t decide who if anyone touched the ball so surely that’s offside no2 and how many times was caciedo allowed to just foul Bowen before being spoke to,and last but not least, time wasting being allowed by Palmer which arsenal would have been proud of ,no wonder he was once demoted from the prem for shocking displays and he is still just as bad Howard Webb you need to resign if he is the best you can offer then the game is ruined
He’s by far the worst of the worst it’s always Attwell and Salisbury that make awful decisions that ultimately affect the result. Off topic but I hope you realise we’re on a hatrick, Lopetegui, Steidten and it’s time Sullivan was also given his marching order’s as well? Looking forward so much to having a CF under 30 year’s of age that can be a focal point of our attack so that Bowen, Kudus and Soucek can feed off his ability and score a lot more goals.