David Moyes reacts to referee decision on Maxwel Cornet’s late strike in derby battle

West Ham United manager David Moyes has slammed the referee’s ‘scandalous’ decision to overturn Maxwel Cornet’s late strike in the 2-1 derby loss to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

It was a game with two halves of heavily contrasting nature in which the first 45 minutes saw a very tepid war of attrition between both sides, before the second half reminded us what London derbies should be like.

An end-to-end second half saw three goals shared between both sides as Thomas Tuchel’s side escaped with a narrow 2-1 win to the despair of Moyes.

West Ham took the lead through a scrappy goal from a corner that saw Michail Antonio poke home a loose ball in the box.

Chelsea’s unlikely hero Ben Chilwell brought down Thiago Silva’s diagonal pass and somehow managed to slot home through Lukasz Fabianski’s legs before setting up Kai Havertz to complete the comeback.

Barely minutes after Havertz’s goal, a dreadful headed backpass from Reece James put Edouard Mendy under pressure from an onrushing Jarrod Bowen.

The Senegalese goalkeeper got there first to nudge the ball away before summer signing Cornet, who hit the post with a header seconds before Havertz’s goal, rifled home a leveler received by a euphoric roar from the away end.

Cornet looked to have stolen a point for the Hammers, but the goal was ruled out after a VAR review deemed Jarrod Bowen to have fouled Mendy in the build-up.

Ironic cheers swarmed the stadium as the home fans found their voice again, and Chelsea saw out the win, but Moyes was not going down without having his voice heard.

“You have seen it, it is a scandalous decision, absolutely rotten from one of the supposedly elite referees – it doesn’t say much about whoever sent him over from VAR as well – it is an unbelievable decision against us,” Moyes said (via Standard Sport).

“We feel we got back to 2-2, and it was not down to anything we have done. I support a lot of the VAR stuff, I actually think the goalkeeper dives, he is faking an injury because he cannot get to the next one – he did the same on the first goal as well. The referee somehow gets that so wrong it is incredible.”

While it was Andrew Madley who made the final decision to disallow the goal, Moyes directed much of his anger towards VAR official Jarred Gillett, who summoned the on-field referee to review the incident in the first place.

“I’m amazed that VAR sent the referee to see it, but I had a quick glimpse myself and thought that even if he goes to the TV, there’s no way he’s overturning this,” he added. “It was a ridiculously bad decision.

“I’d question VAR today as much as the referee. The referee should have stuck to his guns and be big enough to stick with what he said.

“I’ve lost faith in them after that today. I’ve lost faith in the people putting it up for VAR. I can’t see how the goal wasn’t given.

“I make loads of mistakes so referees can make mistakes but I would hope that if the referee made a mistake it would be corrected by VAR. If you’re saying today that VAR has corrected a referee’s mistake, I’m saying I do not see that in a million years.

“I’m actually more embarrassed for the guy on VAR than for the referee. That’s someone who doesn’t understand football and probably shouldn’t be anywhere near it if that’s enough to send the referee to the screen.”

West Ham may be disappointed to have come away from the game with nothing, but they must now concentrate on their Europa Conference League tie against Romanian side FCSB on Thursday.