West Ham United lost 2-0 to Crystal Palace at the London Stadium

West Ham 0-2 Crystal Palace: Keith Hackett speaks out on contentious moment

Refereeing Consultant AUTHORITY Former FIFA Referee; Head of PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited). FOCUS Laws of the Game, VAR implementation, officiating performance, and PGMOL policy. THE AUDIT Keith utilises Statscore’s Officiating Telemetry, including Deep-Data Metrics like Incident Accuracy Rates, VAR Intervention Latency, and Official Positional Efficiency. He provides technical refereeing analysis to reveal the regulatory reality behind match-defining decisions.

Published on:

19 Jan 2025, 6:10 am

West Ham United can have no complaints over the penalty awarded against them in the 2-0 loss to Crystal Palace, according to Keith Hackett.

Fabianski brought down Eddie Nketiah in the second half of Saturday's (18 January) Premier League clash at the London Stadium, allowing Jean-Philippe Mateta to tuck away from the spot.

The Hammers keeper, who was also criticised for his part in Mateta's first goal, got all of Nketiah and none of the ball.

Speaking exclusively to West Ham Zone about the contentious incident, former Premier League referee Hackett said: "Referee Thomas Bramhall was in a good position to award a penalty kick to Crystal Palace.

"The West Ham goalkeeper clearly brought down the Crystal Palace forward."

West Ham have off day in Crystal Palace defeat

After the buzz surrounding the 3-2 win over Fulham in midweek, this performance was more like the ones supporters have become accustomed to watching under Julen Lopetegui.

The Irons struggled to get going, not helped by Konstantinos Mavropanos' red card, and Graham Potter did not beat around the bush with his post-match comments.

Mateta was the two-goal hero for Palace, Fabianski will need no telling that he has to do a lot better.

In fairness, Fabianski did not even really protest the penalty decision. He was clearly frustrated at himself for some poor decision making.

Lukasz Fabianski is a Hammers veteran

Potter will have a full week to reflect on this disappointing performance ahead of facing Aston Villa next weekend.

In other West Ham news, Julen Lopetegui is in talks over a new job already.

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West Ham United

Lukasz Fabianski

Crystal Palace

Keith Hackett