Calmed Down Yet?

No No No is the answer, if you need to know the question then you must have been asleep for the last 18 hours! There is being robbed which is bad enough, but being mugged by an unseen face many many miles away is as bad as it gets! Losing at newly promoted Nottingham Forest due to a dubious VSAR ruling was bad enough, but yesterday's shocker at Stamford Bridge takes the biscuit and the whole of the tin it was in.

Conspiracy theorists will have gone into overdrive regarding how the 'top six' clubs always seem to benefit from VAR decisions whereas the rest don't! So with the benefit of hindsight should West Ham have emerged from the game against Chelsea with at least one point?

Having stifled the home side successfully, David Moyes' team then sprung the 'sucker punch' in the 2nd half as Mikey Antonio bundled the ball over the line past the hapless Mendy in goal. Unfortunately Hammers defence then self destructed as it conceded 2 goals in the space of a few minutes to put the home side back in the ascendancy.

Woeful defending that hurt the team's 'road to recovery' after a rocky start to the season needs urgent attention, sadly long term servant to the club Lukasz Fabianski was clearly at fault for the first Chelsea goal and he didn't cover himself in glory for the second goal either, perhaps now is the time to put Alphonse Areola into the starting line up?

Areola might not have saved either goal, but then again there is a distinct possibility he would have at least one of them. Dropping 'Fabbo' might seem unfair, but why did the club buy Areola if it wasn't just for this type of occurrence? Areola is a commanding presence in goal and will only get better, whereas Fabianski is reaching the end of what has been an illustrious career.

Had 'Balon Dawson' been available to bring on instead of Angelo Ogbonna then perhaps things might well have been different, but as it is the club finds itself unfairly in the bottom three. There is not too much time to dwell on the injustice though as the club take on FSCB or CSA Steaua București whichever name you wish to call them by in the UEFA conference cup on Thursday swiftly followed by the crucial home game on Sunday against Newcastle who themselves were victims of a ludicrous VAR decision!

VAR-Bah Humbug! - Ed

Comments

You know it's weird. The

You know it's weird. The great offside, dubious penalty award debate. That used to happen in pubs up and down the land after a game, spilling into Sunday the lunchtime pint before the missus had cooked dinner.

Has now been superseded by the great VAR swindle debate. Which shouldn't even be a debate. As it was supposed to be black and white.

How long before the great VAR bung debate?????

Madley deseves a 3 month ban

On reflection perhaps Bowen was too honest perhaps he should have acted like Mendes did and roll all over the floor claiming he was taken out- and awarded a penalty these type of incidents are spoiling our game. If Madley was a doctor he would have been struck off and the VAR official should join him- the pair of them should get a 3-month ban they send off managers about time referees are held accountable

Hmmm....

On one side some people believe that clear bias has been proven to exist.

...and the other side, some people do not believe that this bias exists and that our game is clean and hasn't been touched by corruption like the rest of society.

There is normally a clear correlation between money and corruption, but it is all about opinion I guess.

In my opinion, VAR was created with a fair amount of wiggle room as it isn't a crystal-clear process with an inbuilt feedback loop for corrections to be made. The only feedback loop is the media as the participants are normally gagged.

Absolutely agree Green st

Absolutely agree Green st ,you'd love to know whats said between them , (ref and var )you could see him muttering away to Mike Dean who was on var ,no doubt one of them supports Chelsea ,its only by high lighting this ( top six favouritism ) that anything is going to come from it,the way he made shit out of Moyes at the end added salt to the wound ,telling him to go away and gesturing with his hand and just leaving Moyes standing there like a bold child .
Is there any way to object to certain refs ?, i certainly wouldn't wont to see this cheating bastard at the Queen Elizabeth 11 stadium .

Mike Dean was VAR when

Mike Dean was VAR when Chelsea/ Cucarella was screwed over for hair pull. VAR in our game was Jared Gillett.

Mike Dean was VAR when

Change needed!

In Rugby Union the TMO(VAR official) sits in the stadium in Association Football the VAR official sits in front of a screen miles away! I think that would make a difference albeit a small one!

Just another nail in the coffin

The modern game = useless refs,a system ( VAR) that was supposed to help is a joke,why isn't the ref & the cheating keeper treated the same as a player that gets sent off for a dubious decision & receives a 3 match ban? I feel sorry for the fans that pay to see it,cheated is an understatement

i think

i was in favour of v.a.r.at first and thought it might help refs make quicker and correct decisions but now i think it should be dumped and quickly before there are any more ludicrous decisions i still recall the goal that Ant scored after running from the half way line var disallowed it because the ball hit his hand as he controlled it .......disgraceful get rid leave it to the ref and lino's at least bad decisions would even themselves out during the course of the season boo ban V.A.R

VAR has been nothing but a

VAR has been nothing but a hinderance to the game,i would rather go back to the referees decision alone,im in agreement with technology being used to see if the ball has crossed the goal line and thats it.

Unless the decision is

Unless the decision is blatant it should not be reviewed by the ref on field. It was clear watching the game in normal speed that Mendy fucked up, but the refs had to find a way to ensure Chelsea won and to say he was fouled is a joke. If a similar incident had happened out on the pitch the ref would have waved play on. How the refs always, always ALWAYS fall for play acting is a nightmare.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist

I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch and don't think there is one here either but I do wonder if there is some hidden agenda by wither PGMOL, FA or EPL to get VAR out of the game? The PGMOL have now come out and admitted that this decision and the one in the Newcastle game were wrong as they did when Cucurella had his hair pulled in the box against the Spuds. Coming out after the fact and admitting the errors is no good though when teams are robbed of a crucial point or 3.
The moronic VAR in this case, Jared Gilllet should not be allowed near a screen again and the spineless Andy Madley should be banned after taking his advice and having no confidence in his own original correct decision.
The fact it happened against Chelsea is a bitter pill to swallow though. Them along with Arsenal and Manure have in the last few years always managed to eek out a win against us and it's pissing me off.

We all agree VAR is a waste of time

But my take on it is that referees aren't that much worse than pre Sky and the multitude of cameras and pundits, never mind the armchair fans analysing every decision. Back then, the referees decision was final and whether you went down the pub and discussed the game with your mate who happened to be behind the goal whilst you were sat on the halfway line discussing the same incident, you only had your own personal opinion on how you viewed the incident. MOTD and The Big Match of course had their commentarys but for the most part only had one camera viewing the game and NONE of the technology at the disposal of todays television.
Another problem for the referees of today has been the speed of the game, the diving which is classified as professionalism and admired by pundits as opposed to cheating and the constant tinkering of the laws. Timewasting is on the rise and the use of substitutes for tactical reasons has ruined the game.
Cameras aren't going to go away sadly but if thats the case, then more retrospective decisions should be made to stamp out what is ruining the game with severe enough punishment to prevent these things happening again, Let's say, ban Mendy for 5 games for his theatrics against Bowen as an example. Blaming the refs is easy but the corruption is as much on the players and managers part as well.
Football ain't what it used to be.

You're right on the

You're right on the 'simulation', or more apt Cheating by players and a lesser extent managers too. The refs fall for it every time and it is the worst change to the game since Sky came in.
The game has sped up too as you say, however the referee's are now "Professionals" and fit enough to keep up with the game and make the calls. Ex players being bought in would be better VAR's than the ones who probably got into it to be out on the pitch.

Agreed

there deluded

your right deluded

and like you i'm deluded

Andy Madley

Madley would not have the bottle to book Mendy for Simulation let alone a 5-week ban you see what he is spineless. I really hope he don't come down to us in the next few weeks

A buddy of mine who is a

A buddy of mine who is a Chelsea supporter sent me what looked like a doctored photograph of Bowen's Challenge that looked very aggressive. He seemed to be showing his studs and making contact with his leading foot. Then we have that Graeme Souness who is an out and out Spuds fan being the only pundit who supports the awful referee's and VAR's decision. I watched the replay several times, and the fact is that Mendy parried the ball to the feet of Cornet prior to Bowen's trailing leg making a very slight contact with seemingly Mendy's elbow or shoulder. Now with the momentum that a player has chasing the ball and the keeper flat on the floor at full stretch how is a player supposed to pull up? Only alternative was to hurdle Mendy, but his arm seemed to be raised resulting in Bowen's contact. Hilarious that Souness insisted that Bowen "stumbled" and that is why he "hurt" Mendy. The other two at the interview obviously did not seem to agree with him!!