Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer were both stunned by the eventual award of West Ham United's game-winning penalty against Manchester United.
Julen Lopetegui's side piled more misery on beleaguered United manager Erik ten Hag by securing a late 2-1 home victory over the Red Devils. However, Jarrod Bowen's late goal from the spot came through one of the most controversial VAR calls the Premier League has seen since its introduction in 2019.
Danny Ings ran into a cluster of United defenders to get to a loose ball and collided with Matthijs de Ligt. After being asked by VAR's Michael Oliver to check the monitor, referee David Coote thought long and hard before deciding the former Bayern Munich defender had impeded Ings, despite the fact the summer signing could not really get out of the way. United also claimed Ings has handled the ball during the incident.
The decision consigned United to their fourth Premier League defeat of the campaign – only the bottom four teams, Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton have suffered more losses. However, Lineker and Shearer did have some sympathy for Ten Hag's side, who also missed a bucket load of clear chances to kill the game off in the first half, but went in at the break still goalless.
Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast, Lineker said: “The penalty decision that won it for West Ham, I’ve looked at it about eight times and I can’t see anything close to resembling a foul, let alone the fact that the referee did not give it and the VAR turned it over. It looks like a mistake to me."
Shearer replied: “You can look at it another 80 times and you’re still not going to find anything. The referee did not give the penalty, then he’s being told by the VAR to go and have a look at the screen.
“Okay, it’s baffling that two really experienced referees can look at that, particularly David Coote, the referee, who thinks I’ve made an absolute howler here and I am going to go with what the VAR is telling me to. It was a terrible decision, it really was.
“United will look to that and blame [the loss] on that, but they’ve only got themselves to blame for the chances they missed in the first half. They should have been six of seven up and that’s no exaggeration, because they were easy chances."
Lineker added: “With the fact that the referee did not give it on the pitch and this really high bar this season, I come back to my point, I make it every week.
“Suddenly the bar gets lowered and a clear and obvious error to one person is different to another. I think it’s almost unworkable in many ways unless they go to an appeal system."
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After the match, Ten Hag described the decision as an "injustice". The post-match furore over the penalty call was fierce, and the Premier League later released a statement clarifying why it was given.
It read: "The VAR deemed there was sufficient contact on Ings’ lower leg and recommended an on-field review. The referee overturned his original decision and awarded a penalty."
The result means United are languishing in 14th position in the Premier League, seven points away from fourth-placed Aston Villa and 12 away from table-toppers Manchester City.
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