West Ham United striker Callum Wilson has criticised Premier League officials after his late equaliser against Arsenal was ruled out following a VAR review.
Wilson believed he had rescued a point for West Ham during Sunday’s London derby before referee Chris Kavanagh overturned the goal after consulting the pitch-side monitor.
The goal was disallowed after officials ruled that Pablo Fornals impeded Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya by holding his arm during the build-up.
Speaking after the match, Wilson insisted the goal should have counted and questioned the consistency of officiating decisions in similar situations.
Wilson said: “I’m going to say yes because I scored the goal for one.
“But for two, we see a lot of teams nowadays doing a similar situation in the box blocking goalkeepers.”
The West Ham striker claimed Arsenal themselves use similar tactics during set-pieces.
He said: “We analysed Arsenal’s set-pieces before the match and there was a lot of that going on in there.
“That’s not just to say they do it, everybody does it.”
Wilson argued that if officials decide to punish one incident, then similar physical confrontations inside the penalty area should also be penalised consistently.
He said: “For me it’s against us, are you saying it’s a foul? Possibly.
“But of course, there’s incidents that have happened throughout the season that are similar.”
The striker added: “I just think if there’s consistency then there’s no complaints from anybody.
“If you’re going to pull up one you’re going to have to pull up all of them.”
Wilson also suggested the referee should have allowed the goal to stand instead of intervening late through VAR.
He said: “I think he probably should have just let it see itself out and think it’s just handbags in the box and it is what it is.”
PGMOL chief Howard Webb later defended the VAR intervention and maintained that the contact on Raya met the threshold for a foul.
However, Wilson remained unconvinced and pointed to other incidents involving Arsenal players before the ball reached the goalkeeper.
Wilson said: “If you talk about Pablo’s hand on the goalkeeper as an isolated incident, of course it’s a foul.
“But if you look at Trossard not even facing the ball, pushing him, Gabriel pulling his shirt, he’s going to have to stop himself from falling somehow.”
