Jamie Carragher and Sean Dyche share immediate reaction to West Ham United goal v Bournemouth live on Sky Sports
Jamie Carragher and Sean Dyche were in agreement that Kurt Zouma’s goal should have stood during the first half of West Ham against Bournemouth.
The Hammers took the lead on the stroke of half-time through Zouma’s header, which came after the ball struck Thilo Kehrer on the arm in the build up.
The goal was checked by VAR and given after it was deemed that the handball wasn’t intentional and didn’t lead directly to the goal, and speaking live on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports [24 October, 20:56], both Carragher and Dyche agreed with the decision.
“Yeah I think, it’s not that clear but it looks to me like he’s got his eyes shut and he’s lost sight of the ball,” Dyche said. “His hands are in front of his body. I don’t think that’s a deliberate action, personally.
“I think it’s just come over the flight, over the path of the defender.
“Lets have it right, there are always double standards [if you’re the opposing manager]. If it goes against you you’re crying it in, but if it goes for you ‘well it happens,’ but I think that goal has got to stand.”
“I think it’s a goal,” Carragher said. “I’ll go with what the officials give.
“There are so many people in the six yard box, and that’s obviously a tactic, there’s no doubt. It hits the arm of the West Ham defender, they recycle it and keep it going.
“We were talking about it when it happened, would it be a penalty in that situation? We speak so often about the position of the arms. I agree with Sean.
“I think he’s going for the header almost half-heartedly, he’s got his eyes closed in case he gets hurt or something happens.
“It comes off the arm but I don’t think there’s any intention on the direction of where it’s going.”
Finally
It’s about time one of these VAR decisions went in our favour and what a decision it was.
It’s quite clear that Kehrer has absolutely no idea that the ball is going to hit him as he jumps with his arms tucked in to his body and his eyes shut, and we get a huge chunk of luck that it goes back into a dangerous area.
Rule number one in football is to play to the whistle and that’s exactly what the boys did, and they got their reward by being the quickest to react to the danger.
After the nightmare that happened against Southampton where their goal should have been ruled out twice and wasn’t, it’s nice to see the world balancing out in this instance.
It was a big performance from the boys in a scrappy game to pick up all three points and we’re now back into the top half of the table where we belong following a tough start to the campaign.