West Ham United v Arsenal: Dean Ashton reacts as Sky show Martin Odegaard penalty incident
Dean Ashton believes there wasn’t enough contact between Martin Odegaard and Tomas Soucek to warrant a West Ham penalty.
Arsenal captain Odegaard appeared to drag Soucek to the ground as a West Ham corner came into the box during the first half at the London Stadium on Sunday 11 February.
There were calls from some supporters inside the ground for a penalty, but Ashton believes Soucek made the most of minimal contact.
Speaking live on Sky Sports News (2:21 pm, 11 February), Ashton said, “There was a penalty shout for West Ham because Odegaard was looking at Soucek as he was running in for the corner and the corner is coming in and Odegaard is just looking at Soucek and he tries to grab him.
“But there just wasn’t enough contact, Soucek has kind of thrown himself to the floor.”
West Ham must move on
In a game as big as this one, the Hammers will need to do much more to warrant a goalscoring opportunity.
There was certainly enough contact between the two players to warrant shouts from the home support, but on further analysis, Ashton was spot on to suggest that Soucek threw himself to the ground too easily.
Upon feeling the contact from his Arsenal counterpart, the Czech Republic international threw his arms dramatically in the air in what was a rather unnatural way to go to the ground.
It is understandable for West Ham and David Moyes to feel aggrieved in the moment, but once the Scot watches the replays after the match he will most likely realise there is little room for any serious complaints.
At half-time, the home side find themselves 4-0 down after a disastrous first 45 minutes in East London and will need to produce a miracle in the second half if they hope to claim anything from the match.
This will only increase the pressure on Moyes and he now has some big decisions to make at the break.
In other West Ham news, one player at the club has sent a two-word message to Pablo Fornals a week after the Spaniard left the club.
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