Premier League make announcement about big West Ham vs Chelsea incident, footage shown
The first half of West Ham’s Premier League clash against Chelsea has been breathless.
It’s always going to be a match that can catch alight when West Ham take on one of their London rivals.
On this occasion on Friday night, it didn’t take long for a catalyst to cause the London Stadium to erupt.
Lucas Paqueta’s future at West Ham has been a big talking point this summer, but he still seems like he has a huge role to play for Graham Potter after scoring a sixth-minute stunner.
Joao Pedro pulled the game level for Chelsea nine minutes later before Niclas Fullkrug thought he’d restored the Hammers’ lead not long after.
Niclas Fullkrug goal disallowed after offside in build-up
West Ham fans went wild when Fullkrug found the back of the net in the 17th minute.
Fullkrug, who spent most of his debut West Ham season injured, even did a little dance himself to celebrate scoring what he thought was his fourth goal for the East End club.
However, VAR used their semi-automated offside technology to rule that Jean-Clair Todibo was marginally offside in the build-up to the German’s strike.
- Semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) was introduced in the Premier League in April.
- It’s meant to cut down on how long it takes to assess offside decisions.
- It still took over 90 seconds for VAR to disallow Fullkrug’s goal against Chelsea.
The Premier League announced the unfortunate news via their Match Centre account just moments later, adding a short video clip to show the technology in action.
“VAR checked the referee’s call of goal – and established that Todibo was in an offside position in the build-up and recommended that the goal was disallowed,” said the announcement.
Michael Oliver chalked off the goal and awarded a free-kick to Chelsea, who then scored their second and third goals in the 23rd and 34th minutes through Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez, respectively.
- Read more: West Ham face £60m stick or twist over Graham Potter sack – ‘I think they will act pretty swiftly’
Is Niclas Fullkrug struggling for West Ham?
Fullkrug is a popular player among West Ham fans. However, the former Borussia Dortmund striker has really not done much to prove his worth on the pitch since his arrival from Germany last year.
The 32-year-old’s appearance against Chelsea on Friday night was his 22nd for the Hammers.
In his 21 games beforehand, he’d scored just three times, with Fullkrug’s last West Ham goal coming against Bournemouth in early April.
| 24/25 Premier League stats | |
| Appearances | 18 |
| Goals | 3 |
| xG | 2.2 |
| Assists | 2 |
West Ham are yet to win a game in which the Germany international has scored.
Whether that’s David Sullivan’s fault, Julen Lopetegui’s fault or Potter’s fault, it’s hard to say – but it’s clear that injuries have played a role.
Last season, Fullkrug spent two long spells on the sidelines, missing September to November with an Achilles issue before a hamstring injury saw him miss almost the entirety of January, February and March.
As long as he doesn’t get injured, that can be a mild success for West Ham.
But ultimately, they need him scoring goals and they need him winning matches.
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