By Louis Nixon
Despite being a hero in moments this season, Areola’s goalkeeping blunder tonight might’ve cost West Ham Premier League status.
Areola has had a handful of excellent moments this season, he’s had MOTM worthy performances across the season, such as Bournemouth where he made a monumental amounts of saves, as well as a handful of others where he’s kept us in the game and helped secure some of the points we’ve manage to accumulate, but in moments of harsh circumstances, tonight, might’ve been more costly than ever before.
It seemed to be a standard game for Areola, the Frenchman had made a few wonderful saves, one being a blasted shot from outside the box, which he miraculously reached, keeping the Hammers their 1-0 lead at the time.
However, towards the end of the game, Areola attempted to punch the ball out in which he collected Nottingham Forest’s forward, resulting in an 88th minute penalty which would be slotted in, merely missing his feat before rupturing the net. A mistake which saw thousands of Hammers fans exit the stadium, whilst the others sat there with their head in their hands, finally succumbing to the reality of relegation.
It’s a Goalkeeper error which seems to simple to be made, but the punishment that can come along with it makes it all the worse, in the dying moments of the game where a draw would’ve been frustrating but manageable, a lose isn’t just 1 point gone, it’s two points gained for our primary rivals, and that’s what stings.
Many complaints about the referee can be made, but no matter the amount put across, none would be able to convince the official, who seemingly had changed his tone against the Hammers in the second half… it was utterly brutal.
Usually, you tend to keep your head high and move on to the next game, but given that we have no wins in ten and now seven points from safety, it almost feels like an impossible task to achieve.
Sometimes Goalkeeping mistakes are forgiven, but given the circumstances, it appears as an error that’ll never be forgotten.
