Man who cost West Ham UCL qualification could come back to haunt Hammers
West Ham have been on the end of some horrendous VAR decisions since it’s arrival in the Premier League.
Indeed, we’ve also had some horrendous decisions go our way, too, not least the recent decision to award us a penalty against Man United.
But the bad decisions certainly outweigh the good ones where West Ham are concerned. The list is too long to go into in detail but the one that always springs to mind came back in April 2021 against Chelsea.
West Ham were fourth in the league with six league games left to play and had a really strong chance of qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history. But the referee that day had other ideas.
Fabian Balbuena played a long ball forward and his kicking leg caught Ben Chilwell, who was attempting to block the long ball. It all happened in one movement and it was immensely obvious that Balbuena coudn’t stop himself from making content with the Blues defender – it was clear his only intention was kicking the football.
But Chilwell feigned injury, which forced the referee and VAR to check the pitchside monitor for a reason to punish Balbuena. We all know that as soon as a referee is asked to watch anything on the pitchside monitor, he’ll change his mind and do whatever VAR is telling them to do.
So Balbuena was shown a red card and the Hammers went on to lose the game 1-0. Chelsea would finish the season in fourth, two points ahead of West Ham. It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that had West Ham even drawn the game, let alone won, they would’ve finished above Chelsea come the end of that season.
The referee in charge that day? Chris Kavanagh. The same Chris Kavanagh who has also twice failed to give West Ham penalties against Liverpool in the past, one for a clear and obvious handball and the other for a clear and obvious foul.
He is the man many blame for West Ham not qualifying for the Champions League back in 2021 and, unfortunately, he could be about to haunt us again.
That’s because it has been announced that Kavanagh will be on VAR duty when West Ham travel to St. James’ Park to face Newcastle next Monday.
The irony is that West Ham were on the wrong end of one of the worst VAR decisions in history at St. James’ Park last season, so having Kavanagh involved this time around doesn’t fill me with much confidence that we’ll be able to get some justice.
Every single person in the world could tell Kalvin Phillips didn’t know Anthony Gordon was behind when he tried to clear the ball last season, but for some reason the referee and VAR came to the conclusion that he deliberately fouled the England international while also trying to clear the ball from the penalty area.
So next Monday night could be interesting for West Ham, especially as Kavanagh is involved, and it probably won’t be interesting for the right reasons.
Let’s hope I’m wrong.