Thomas Tuchel has admitted he was relieved to be on the right side of a controversial VAR call in Chelsea’s 2-1 victory over West Ham.
Chelsea netted what proved to be a late winner through Kai Havertz, but West Ham went straight down the other end in stoppage time and Maxwel Cornet thundered home into an empty net after goalkeeper Edouard Mendy was left on the floor following a collision with Jarrod Bowen.
The contact was undoubtedly minimal but VAR deemed it enough to chalk the goal off, handing Chelsea the win in the process. For Tuchel, it felt like justice following the referee controversy that landed him in hot water after last month’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham.
“It was a clear foul on the goalkeeper,” he told BBC Sport. “I had doubts about the first one [West Ham’s opener] – but I will not comment. Last time I got punished with huge fines. You give your opinion. You will not be fined.”
Tuchel added in his press conference: “It went in our favour, and there’s a reason it went in our favour. In my opinion, it is a foul. I will not comment anymore, but what happened against Tottenham was so obvious, and I paid a lot of money for commenting, so I will not do it.”
West Ham boss David Moyes proceeded to describe the VAR call as ‘scandalous’ and ‘rotten’, before Declan Rice took to Twitter to add: “That’s up there with one of the worst VAR decisions made since it’s come into the game. Shambles.”
Chelsea ended the game with 69% possession but mustered up the same number of shots on target as their opponents as, once again, they failed to make their dominance count, but Tuchel insisted he was not particularly concerned.
“[West Ham] make you underperform, make it difficult to accelerate the game,” he said. “If you find them, it’s in spaces that are not dangerous. This is what they do. It’s hard to create half-chances, deliveries and it’s almost impossible to come back when they are ahead.
“We didn’t play with the biggest belief and self-confidence given the last results and I understand that. I was not angry with our players and I told them to keep believing and find the rhythm. It’s very hard to play a really attractive game against West Ham because they do what they do at the highest level.”
