Jay Boothroyd fumes live on Sky Sports after controversial Tomas Soucek goal for West Ham United v Arsenal
Jay Boothroyd was left fuming after Tomas Soucek’s controversial opener as West Ham United beat Arsenal 2-0 on Thursday 28 December.
The Hammers were looking to claim their third Premier League win in a row when they travelled to the Emirates Stadium to take on Mikel Arteta’s team.
West Ham took the lead when Soucek latched on to Jarrod Bowen’s cut-back after the ball looked to have gone out of play. VAR had a look at the incident but determined that there was no conclusive evidence that the ball had gone out.
And Sky Sports pundit Boothroyd, speaking live on Sky Sports (28 December, 8:30 pm) couldn’t believe what he saw and said for all the money the Premier League have, they still can’t get a birds-eye view technology to deal with such instances.
He said: “The Premier League spend so much money on everything about football but then in these situations there’s one view. There’s no bird’s eye view, no view from the other side – that was too far away and couldn’t zoom in. They should have this sorted out already.
“Those are the details they need to work out. If that was out and you’ve given a goal that’s a poor decision on what they’ve seen. Those are the things everyone is frustrated within football right now.”
Irons fans won’t care
We are certainly starting to see more and more of these instances being played out in top-level football these days and it seems to have stemmed from that Karou Mitoma moment for Japan at the 2022 World Cup.
When looking at it from behind Bowen as he cut the ball back for Soucek, the ball does seem to be out of play but you can never tell from that perspective as there’s still the birds-eye view to consider.
Gary Neville pointed that on Sky Sports earlier this month and it’s certainly happened once again. Boothroyd is absolutely right with his fuming reaction.
The Premier League receive billions every week and month but still can’t get the right technology to deal with these instances which are becoming problematic as is the problem with VAR.
Perhaps with the call as tight as it was, the ultimate decision to stick with the on-field decision of goal would be the best course to take. However, the West Ham United fans certainly wouldn’t have cared as they grabbed a rare win against their London rivals.
In other West Ham news, one player failed a late fitness test before the clash.