West Ham fans will be furious to see this image displaying an FA rule doing the rounds after Jarrod Bowen was impeded by Aaron Ramsdale during the club’s weekend clash.
The Hammers fell to a crushing defeat at the hands of Arsenal yesterday, which saw their chances of qualifying for the Champions League disappear – at least via league position – with David Moyes having made five changes against the Gunners as he has one eye firmly on Thursday’s crunch match.
Was this a foul on Bowen?
Yes!
No!
While West Ham will be annoyed that they conceded two goals from corners, they may feel even more angered by the decision from Mike Dean to not send off Arsenal’s Ramsdale, or even award the Hammers a free kick when the ‘keeper appeared to impede Bowen outside of the box.
Instead, Dean handed Bowen a yellow card for simulation, although a key rule set out by the FA has since been highlighted, which states an indirect free kick is awarded if a player plays in a dangerous manner or impedes the progress of an opponent without contact being made.
TIF Thoughts on this Bowen incident…
Many may have seen the incident and thought that with Ramsdale not making any contact, Bowen fully deserved to be booked because he was essentially attempting to cheat the referee, however, this rule suggests that Dean could have still awarded a free kick to the home side, despite Ramsdale not touching the Hammers man.
This is because it’s obvious that Ramsdale charging out of his box and sliding at the feet of Bowen forced the English winger to jump out the way of the tackle, thus disrupting his running pattern – while he would have been left with an open goal had he managed to get past the goalkeeper successfully.
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