VAR FROM THE MADLEY CROWD
Chelsea 2 West Ham 1
Emerson, or ‘Waldo’ as the footy academics call him, returns to the club that he was shunned by at the beginning of the season. Whether that motivates him to put in his most serious Premier League shift in a West Ham shirt in the next 90 minutes, only time will tell.
Stamford Bridge, with all its blue flags and twenty-five quid fish and chip portions, has become something of a cauldron of controversy for West Ham over the last few years. That is one of the main reasons why I always hesitate before coughing up the 50 or 60 quid required to sit in the cheap seats and pray the Hammers, or the ref, or VAR, or the cheating Chelsea players don’t let me down. It’s the vainglorious parade of so-called talent facing a (usually better) industry-focused swarm of claret and blue heads and minds, pursuing that hopeful but elusive win. An invariable triumph of hope over experience.
Abramovic and his millions have gone, and the place looks a little threadbare. Tuchel seems to have fuck all, compared with his bounty-filled war chests of yesteryear. Chelsea have already surrendered meekly on the road to Leeds and Southampton, but like the wounded jackal, this is often when they are at their most dangerous.
West Ham have only won once here in their last sixteen attempts, proof of the run of the rouble, but records always stand tall in anticipation of the invariable challenges.
Just before the end of a fairly eventless first half, Fornals punctuates a six man West Ham move when he gets on the end of Coufal’s deep cross once it is headed out by Silva, but his volley is agonisingly inches over, with Bendy Mendy completely beaten.
The second half sees Hammers leading from the front, and when Bendy punches Fornals’ formidable inswinging corner clear, his clearance finds Bowen outside the area, who volleys it back in towards the top corner, only for The Benz to save well to his left, clearing for corner number two. This one, taken left-footed by Bowen, is headed on by Paquetà to the back post where Rice rolls it across for Antonio to tap in, putting Hammers ahead. Hoo-fucking Ray. Bendy lays prostrate in the goal, looking a little, well bent, and clearly intent on making a complaint about the challenge until he realises the people who pushed him were Cucurella and Fofana, players on his own side. The Benz. Who could forget his expert chaperoning of Arthur Masuaka’s speculative winning effort at London Stadium into the top corner of the net. And now, here we are again, with a possible winner to cherish, alongside Aaron Cresswell’s effort back in November 2019.
The minor state of euphoria lasts exactly fourteen minutes, during which Fuchal introduces a whole hand of substitutes, all kicking and rushing their way into the West Ham area, even with the ball nowhere in sight. Eventually Chilwell, one of the five subs, creeps in behind Kehrer as Silva pumps the ball in, and his delicate touch squeezes the ball past Fabianski. Hammers immediately hit back with substitutes of their own, Benrahma picking out Cornet, who heads the ball past Bendy but against the post with his first touch. Then, with ninety seconds on the clock, Chilwell’s hopeful cross is poked home by Havertz, with Ogbonna sprawled at his ankles.
But that’s not all, though it might as well have been. A minute later, a poor header back by Reece James into the path of Bowen, sees the striker step over the advancing Bendy, who can only punch the ball directly into the path of Cornet, and the substitute this time steers the ball high into the net for a deserved injury time equaliser.
‘Mendy came, and couldn’t claim,’ says the BBC’s Jonathan Pearce. The referee Andy Madley, gives the goal. However, the VAR assistant, Australian Jarred Gillet, possibly from some beach in Perth, calls in for Madley to head for the VAR screen, from which he decides to rule it out.
Madley by name, idiot by nature. The notion of freewill, which Waldo Emerson may have championed in the 19th century, is clearly now a spent force.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 33 Emerson, 4 Kurt Zouma, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 8 Pablo Fornals, 24 Thilo Kehrer, 28 Tomas Souček, 9 Michail Antonio, 11 Lucas Paquetà, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 41 Declan Rice (captain)
Substitutes: 14 Maxwel Cornet, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 22 Saïd Benrahma
Goalscorer: Michail Antonio
