VAR overturns offside as Jordan Ayew gives Crystal Palace win at West Ham
Ed Aarons at the London Stadium
datePublished Sat 5 Oct 2019 19.37 BST

Between them, Manuel Pellegrini and Roy Hodgson have a combined age of 138 and have taken charge of more than 30 clubs including Real Madrid and Internazionale. Yet even for the Premier League’s two oldest managers, the era of VAR is a new dynamic they will just have to get used to.

In the old days, Jordan Ayew’s late goal would have remained disallowed and West Ham and Crystal Palace would have gone home with a share of the points. But there can be no such grey areas any more and when replays showed that Martin Kelly had been played onside by Issa Diop’s toe before his header across goal, with Felipe Anderson’s knee doing the job for Ayew to allow him the easiest of tap-ins, Michael Oliver had no choice but to award the goal.

It was a bitter pill for West Ham to swallow after they had taken the lead through Sébastien Haller’s fourth goal of the season and were destined for the heady heights of third in the table, only for a penalty from Patrick van Aanholt after Declan Rice’s rush of blood to the head and Ayew’s late intervention to instead leave Palace in fourth and their supporters dreaming.

“Our performance over 90 minutes meant that we don’t need to apologise to anyone for the fact we won today,” said Hodgson, who oversaw his first away victory against West Ham at the seventh attempt.

Both teams had come into this game in significantly ruder health than this time last year, with West Ham having lost only one of their last 10 matches in the Premier League and Palace boasting 25 points from their last 13. The absence of Luka Milivojevic due to suspension meant Hodgson handed a full league debut to James McCarthy alongside his old Hamilton and Wigan teammate James McArthur in midfield, while Roberto continued in goal for West Ham following the hip injury suffered by Lukasz Fabianski in last week’s draw at Bournemouth.

But with Palace packing the middle of the pitch and ready to spring on the counterattack in the tried-and-tested method of their wily old manager, West Ham’s playmakers struggled to find time and space in the opening stages.

The hosts finally came alive on the half-hour mark when Mark Noble’s ball presented Andriy Yarmalenko with the opportunity to lay the ball on a plate for Haller, only for Vicente Guaita to pull off the most unlikely of point-blank saves.

At the other end Ryan Fredericks sprang to his side’s rescue to clear Jeffrey Schlupp’s tame effort off the line before Guaita was called upon once more to deny Haller after a superb cross from Anderson. McCarthy tried his luck from distance for Palace but found Roberto equal to his shot while Manuel Lanzini dragged an effort just wide of the post just before the break.

Angelo Ogbonna should have opened the scoring early in the second half, only for the defender to volley over from close range after Haller’s clever header across goal. There would be no such wastefulness from Haller four minutes later however as he stabbed home Fredericks’ cross from six yards out following a flowing move that began with a lovely one-two between Noble and Anderson.

Given Palace’s lack of attacking threat, it seemed that would be enough to claim the points. Yet the visitors’ prayers were answered within minutes of going behind as Rice inexplicably played the ball with his arm as Cheikhou Kouyaté attempted to cross and Van Aanholt made no mistake from the spot. Ayew had the final say three minutes from time.

“We created enough chances to be at least one goal ahead,” said a disappointed Pellegrini. “The penalty decision decided the game - I don’t remember Crystal Palace creating many chances before that. We are a little bit unlucky with VAR but these are moments that happen in football.”