Premier League release statement on Leeds vs West Ham controversy
West Ham went 2-0 down early on against Leeds United.
West Ham travelled to face Leeds as Nuno Espirito Santo continues his search for a first win in charge of the Irons.
Nuno came under scrutiny after Brentford’s poor performance, and that level of play continued at Elland Road.
Jarrod Bowen nearly scored for West Ham against Leeds, but that was as good as it got in the early exchanges for the away side.
Things could have been different going into the second half if not for a contentious moment that went against the Hammers.
Premier League release statement after Lucas Paqueta offside call vs Leeds United
Lucas Paqueta has played as a striker for West Ham in their last two outings as the new head coach looks to find a solution to his number nine woes.
This didn’t pay off against Brentford as the Brazil international struggled to make an impact against a physical Bees side.
The 28-year-old did look improved at times against Leeds and so nearly capped off his performance with a goal to make it 2-1.
Paqueta converted after the ball cannoned off Callum Wilson into his path, but this was tentatively ruled out for offside.
VAR wasn’t able to utilise the semi-automated offside system once again, reverting to controversially drawing lines to determine the offside decision.
The Premier League Match Centre account has now released a statement via X on 24 October to confirm the decision.
It reads: “The referee’s call of no goal was checked and confirmed by the VAR – with Paquetá in an offside position.
“Due to technical issues, Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) wasn’t available during the VAR check. The VAR was required to manually construct lines in determining this decision.“
West Ham didn’t deserve any luck vs Leeds United
You make your own luck in football, and the Hammers haven’t done anything to deserve any.
Nuno’s men were shocking for the majority of the first half and genuinely haven’t looked much better in the second.
Paqueta has tried his best to get sent off by Stuart Attwell by continuously showing dissent towards the match official, but he has remained on the pitch.
Bowen came close in the first half, but it says it all that a bicycle kick has been the away side’s best effort to this point.
On another day, the Irons may have got lucky and semi-automated offside would have found Paqueta to be onside, but that hasn’t been the case at Elland Road.
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