Jarrod Bowen has now had his say on West Ham United�s controversial opening goal against Arsenal last night. The Gunners suffered their first home defeat...
Jarrod Bowen has now had his say on West Ham United�s controversial opening goal against Arsenal last night.
The Gunners suffered their first home defeat in the Premier League against David Moyes� side yesterday. We weren�t good enough in the two boxes and West Ham deserve all the praise in the world for their performance. But, there are questions about their first goal.
Jarrod Bowen addresses controversy during Arsenal vs West Ham
Arsenal dominated possession against West Ham United at the Emirates last night, but we just couldn�t put the ball in the back of the net.
Gabriel Jesus, who got a 3/10 in Arsenal Insider�s player ratings last night, had two huge chances that he made a meal of, and that cost us the game in the end.
The big talking point, however, was Tomas Soucek�s goal in the first half. It really did look like the ball had gone out of play before Jarrod Bowen passed it to the Czech international.
The VAR took its time but due to lack of conclusive evidence, decided to stick with the on-field decision.
Bowen was asked about this, and the Englishman wasn�t sure himself.
He told West Ham�s official website: �Listen, when it happened in a split-second I knew the ball was in midair so it�s probably hard to tell at the time.
�Obviously, you don�t want it to go out, so you try to keep it in play quickly and, like I said, it�s difficult and I haven�t seen it, but I was there at the time and it�s one of those where because the ball was in the air it was hard to tell. If it had been on the ground it would probably have been easier to tell.
�All I could do was try and get it across to Tom or Mo [Kudus] and the goal was scored and it stood, so it was really, really important to get that first goal.�
Arsenal can�t have any complaints
Yes, the world�s best league should have the technology to determine whether the ball is in play or not, but that goal isn�t the reason why Arsenal lost last night.
We were dominant on the ball from start to finish and even had 77 touches in the opposition penalty area. That set a new record last night � no team has had that many touches and failed to score since stats started being recorded in the Premier League.
West Ham deserve a lot of praise for their low block, but Arsenal can only blame themselves for failing to convert our opportunities.
Mikel Arteta�s men take on Fulham next, and that will be another difficult game. It will be interesting to see if we will be able to bounce back then.
