Chelsea is furious as they were denied a clear handball of West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek. As a result, the Blues had to settle for a draw against West Ham.
Saturday’s draw against West Ham United is another blow to Chelsea’s already bad season. Joao Felix had scored an early goal in the 16th minute to put them ahead but that lead was soon canceled out by Emerson’s goal in the 28th minute.
Toward the end of the game, Conor Gallagher had a shot at goal which was diverted by Soucek with his arm. The players’ protests were to no avail as referee Craig Dawson ignored them. VAR was also not used to check the incident.
Chelsea’s Twitter account then quote tweeted a post from FIFA that asked who was going to win the Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper award. While Yassine Bounou, Emiliano Martinez, and Thibaut Courtois are the official nominees, Chelsea’s admin added the name ‘Tomas Soucek’ to the list along with a video clip of the handball. The tweet gained traction among football fans and showcased Chelsea still hasn’t forgotten about the Tomas Soucek handball.
Tomas Soucek. https://t.co/1jdH2D5SLM pic.twitter.com/WfENv2lQv1
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 11, 2023
The Chelsea admins had previously tweeted “Soucek makes a great save from Conor Gallagher” immediately after the game.
Soucek makes a great save from Conor Gallagher.
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 11, 2023
Chelsea manager Graham Potter also had a similar statement after the game, “It was a good save. You need your goalkeeper sometimes to give you the points. It looks like one of those that if it was given it wouldn’t have been overturned, but obviously, it wasn’t given.
“You have to earn your luck. We can’t complain or wait for luck to turn for us, we have to keep working. It looked quite a handball and, as I said, I didn’t know Tomas could get down so easily and save like that.”
When asked about VAR’s inconsistency by BT Sport, “You won’t [get that] because they are human beings. Every single decision and action, you won’t get the same one again, so it’s very hard to get consistency.”
VAR is under heavy criticism recently. Arsenal couldn’t get a Brentford goal canceled which was offside due to the VAR forgetting to draw the offside lines. This lead them to a draw at a crucial time when they are in a tight title race.
Chelsea is now 9th in the Premier League, winning only one game since the World Cup. The Blues will need every point they can get as they may miss European competitions if they don’t.
