'The most unlucky and undeserved loss in the history of football'published at 13:08 British Summer Time 21 August 2022
West Ham v Brighton (14:00 BST)
James Jones, We Are West Ham podcast, external
West Ham's 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest may have been the most unlucky and undeserved loss in the history of football.
Two efforts bounced down off the crossbar and back off the goalline without crossing it – one from Pablo Fornals and a Said Benrahma free-kick.
Declan Rice missed a penalty and Forest’s goal was the biggest fluke ever seen.
And that is not to mention the refereeing decisions.
Rob Jones disallowed a Benrahma goal before half-time when Orel Mangala stepped into Michail Antonio’s path in the build-up and the Hammers striker had the audacity to collide with him.
Jones was looking right at it and gave nothing, yet VAR bafflingly recommended a pitch-side monitor review… and we all know what happens then.
All this before Jones somehow missed Scott McKenna playing volleyball on Forest’s goal-line as he scooped Tomas Soucek’s goal-bound effort away with his hands.
VAR needed to intervene again - this time to tell Jones to award the clearest penalty since football began.
Justice appeared done, but to add insult to injury, Jones decided to ignore the laws of the game and only show McKenna a yellow card when he should have been sent off.