Chelsea still fuming at Tomas Soucek handball in West Ham draw

Graham Potter on Chelsea's draw to West Ham United

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Chelsea were left furious during the closing stages of Saturday’s draw against West Ham United when they were denied what appeared to be a blatant penalty for a handball by Tomas Soucek inside the box. The Czech midfielder used his arm to divert Conor Gallagher’s goal-bound shot away from danger to spark fervent protests from the Blues players, but referee Craig Pawson was in no mood to blow up and simply waved away the appeals.

The incident also went unchecked by VAR, leaving Chelsea reeling as they were forced to settle for a point at the London Stadium after Joao Felix’s opening goal was cancelled out by Emerson Palmieri’s leveller in the first half. Their social media team were quick to remind fans of the incident on Saturday evening by jokingly nominating Soucek for The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper award with a snide tweet.

Chelsea’s official account quote-tweeted a post by FIFA asking fans who they think should win the coveted prize, which is set to be given out at a glitzy ceremony in Paris later this month. Thibaut Courtois, Emiliano Martinez and Yassine Bounou are the official nominees for the award but the Blues threw another name in the hat by simply replying: “Tomas Soucek,” accompanied by a video clip of the handball that went unpunished.

They aimed a similar dig at Soucek during the match in a tweet that gained plenty of traction after the final whistle, which read: “Soucek makes a great save from Conor Gallagher.” Chelsea boss Graham Potter went on to express a similar sentiment in his post-match interview as he sarcastically congratulated the Hammers midfielder on keeping the scores level with just minutes remaining at the London Stadium.

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“It was a good save,” said Potter. “You need your goalkeeper sometimes to give you the points. It looks like one of those that if it was given it wouldn’t have been overturned, but obviously it wasn’t given.

“You have to earn your luck. We can’t complain or wait for luck to turn for us, we have to keep working. It looked quite a handball and, like I said, I didn’t know Tomas could get down so easily and save like that.”

Potter was then asked by BT Sport if he would like to see greater levels of consistency from the officials in terms of VAR usage and replied: “You won’t [get that] because they are human beings. Every single decision and action, you won’t get the same one again, so it’s very hard to get consistency.”

It remains to be seen whether Soucek’s handball will come back to haunt Chelsea at the end of the season, with the Blues well adrift of the Premier League’s top four after winning just one match since the turn of the year. Every point gained or lost is set to have an important bearing on their fortunes at the end of the campaign, which looks set to be one that Potter will be desperate to forget unless their form changes drastically over the coming weeks and months.

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