David Moyes sack calls proved wrong – Three things learned from West Ham United v Arsenal
West Ham began their post-Christmas campaign with a fantastic 2-0 victory against Arsenal at The Emirates on 28 December, putting them sixth in the Premier League.
The Hammers took the lead in controversial circumstances, with Thomas Soucek’s opener subject to a VAR check before the officials decided there was no sufficient evidence to disallow the goal.
In the second half, it was Konstantinos Mavropanos returning to his old club who thumped home a header off the bar, and after Said Benrahma missed a late penalty, the scoreline at The Emirates remained 2-0.
Here are three things we learned from the victory at The Emirates…
Moyes has earned more respect
Calls for Moyes’ head were rushed and born from frustration. While results haven’t been absolutely perfect all season – they very rarely are. As things stand, West Ham sit in sixth place after 19 games.
The boss has proved plenty of his doubters wrong with the last couple of performances. Consecutive 2-0 wins against Manchester United at the London Stadium and then Arsenal at the Emirates prove Moyes’ style and system, while frustrating at times, gets the best out of this team.
While he may still leave at the end of the season when his contract expires as the Hammers look to move in a new direction, Moyes has earned more respect than he has been shown in East London.
VAR still isn’t fit for purpose
Despite the call eventually going in favour of West Ham, the fact it took three minutes for the officials to realise they couldn’t make a decision and to go with the on-field call highlighted everything that is wrong with VAR.
On top of that, if VAR can’t be used to determine these tight decisions, what’s the point in trying? Two decisions this season, both coincidentally against Arsenal for West Ham and Newcastle, couldn’t be decided and therefore should be left alone until the technology is fit for purpose.
Jamie Carragher called for a change with more technology added to the game [Twitter, 28 December], and it’s hard to disagree after what happened tonight.
Paqueta should not have been risked
Amid all the joy and jubilation of a 2-0 win at The Emirates, there remains the looming cloud of an injury to Lucas Paqueta. After he felt something during the pre-game warmup, the Brazilian was assessed by physios and deemed fit to start, before he was withdrawn after 32 minutes with an injury.
As Paqueta appeared to point to his hamstring, this could be a bad one for the Hammers, with one of their most important players possibly ruled out for the foreseeable future due to taking an unnecessary risk.
In other West Ham news, Mark Clattenburg has reacted to the controversial incident.