Thierry Henry and Lee Hendrie share verdict on Burnley penalty v West Ham
Thierry Henry and Lee Hendrie both believe Anthony Taylor made the correct decision in awarding Burnley a penalty against West Ham.
Chris Wood flicked the ball over Issa Diop’s head before Tomas Soucek tried to get rid of the danger with a clumsy tackle on the Burnley forward.
The pair came together awkwardly and Wood fell to the ground rather theatrically, which may have convinced Taylor to give a penalty.
Providing analysis for Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Henry said, “It is a penalty, there’s nothing you can argue about that.
“He does really well. You can’t blame Soucek for trying to go for the ball, but it is a penalty.”
And Hendrie shared the same view in commentary, “Soucek just gets straight across him, which I think makes it an easy decision. It’s definitely a penalty.”
Big character
The image above shows Soucek was a fraction too late in trying to poke the ball away from Wood, who deserves credit for his trickery.
Soucek should not take the blame though, as it was Diop who failed to do his job by letting Wood get past him in a dangerous position.
But instead of dwelling on the team’s shortcomings, we would rather praise the attitude shown.
Big leaders like Declan Rice, Mark Noble and Aaron Cresswell were missing at Turf Moor but we did not allow the first goal to get us down.
We showed a brilliant attitude to respond straight away, with Michail Antonio scoring twice in the ten minutes after the penalty was scored.
It is such character that has led us to fifth place and if we maintain it over the next four games we could qualify for the Champions League.
It was a brilliant performance all-round and with key stars to come back we are confident of backing up Monday’s display with another three points against Everton.
In other West Ham news, Declan Rice gushed over a West Ham star and issued an emotional message to fans after big win v Burnley.
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