David Moyes has spoken out on the recent controversial calls made by VAR which have hampered West Ham of late.

To say VAR is controversial would be an understatement, it’s arguably made the officiating in the English top flight even worse. Some blame incompetence and some have said it’s been introduced to protect ‘the big 6’. West Ham have found themselves losing out on a point in their last two matches due to poor decisions.

Let’s start with the Liverpool game, shall we? In what was a controversial performance from Chris Kavanagh, a blatant penalty was denied towards the end of the match. The ball not only hit Thiago’s arm three times, he also committed what was a potentially dangerous tackle on Danny Ings. Now the fact Liverpool have a 91% win rate when Kavanagh is officiating is worrying in itself, what’s even more concerning is the fact it wasn’t even checked by VAR.

David Moyes was understandably aggravated by this decision. When asked if the referee gave him an explanation for the decision he laughed. ‘No, are you joking?’ He replied. ‘Do you think that would’ve been given at Anfield?’ he asked the reporter. ‘For him to be so sure that wasn’t a handball and not to even go and check it. I don’t know who was on VAR tonight,’ he exclaimed, sounding fed up.

Now the VAR drama doesn’t end there for the Hammers last week. After being robbed of a point against Liverpool, another awful officiating display saw Crystal Palace snatch all three points. While Palace deserved the win thoroughly, you can’t help but be left with a bad taste in your mouth when their winner was a controversial penalty.

Eze’s shirt was grabbed, I use that word very loosely, by Aguerd and the referee pointed to the spot. VAR somehow confirmed the decision which was the really baffling part. ‘It’s an incredibly soft penalty’ Moyes stated, adding ‘the one thing they said they weren’t going to do was give soft penalties!’ Furious, he added ‘once again VAR is not doing a good job.’

While in normal circumstances, one might be able to move on from it, it’s just another couple of examples of shambolic officiating in the Premier league. Who knows, those potential two points could cost the Hammers their place in the top flight next season. Now in all fairness, West Ham have had decisions go their way as well this season, but none as blatantly wrong as those two.

While the blame can’t fully be on VAR and the refereeing (West Ham’s performance needs to improve and fast), there really isn’t any excuse to justify either of those decisions.

With a pointless PGMOL apology pending, the East London side simply can not afford to let this define their season. A relegation battle and a European semi final are at their doorstep, let’s hope VAR isn’t going to define their season.

Written by Charlie Bass