West Ham and David Moyes may be counting themselves lucky judging by this latest image to emerge of the penalty Maxwel Cornet missed.
The Hammers have opened up a great chance for the likes of Wolves and Manchester United to get into Europe for next season as they failed to beat relegation-threatened and managerless Burnley at home yesterday and even fell 1-0 behind in the first half.
Should Cornet's penalty have been retaken?
Yes!
No!
West Ham were able to claw themselves back into the game during the second half when Tomas Soucek struck past Nick Pope, although that may have only halved the deficit had Cornet managed to stick away his penalty that was rolled wide by the Ivory Coast international.
While it was a poor penalty that dribbled well wide of the post, West Ham’s Lukasz Fabianski may have had to face a second spot-kick had VAR noticed Issa Diop encroaching into the penalty box before Cornet took the spot-kick.
TIF Thoughts on the penalty incident…
West Ham did see their chances of picking up all three points disappear in the second half when Nick Pope pulled off a simply stunning save from Diop, who headed the ball into the far corner only for the goalkeeper to claw the ball away from danger.
It was quite the game for Diop being involved in that incident near the end of the game but also this encroachment in his own penalty area. Encroachment likely happens in a lot of games, but it was spotted and forced a retake two weeks ago when Leicester City’s Caglar Soyuncu crept forward too early as VAR stepped in to hand Wilfried Zaha a second chance to score, something he obliged to do.
While Diop’s encroachment did not have a direct impact on where the ball ended up as he didn’t have to clear the ball, the French defender is a good few yards inside the box, so it could be seen as a major let-off for Moyes and his side that another spot-kick wasn’t handed to Cornet.
In other news: ‘Nonsense’ – West Ham Fan TV man left fuming as Sky Sports footage emerges