Graham Potter fumes that Tomas Soucek was West Ham's 'goalkeeper'

‘I didn’t know he could get down and save like that’: Graham Potter sarcastically fumes that Tomas Soucek was West Ham’s ‘goalkeeper’ after Chelsea were denied a late penalty despite the midfielder appearing to handle the ball in the box

• Graham Potter has described Tomas Soucek as West Ham’s goalkeeper
• Soucek handled the ball in the box as Chelsea chased a late winner on Saturday
• But the Blues were denied a penalty as VAR ruled no action needed to be taken 

Graham Potter congratulated West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek on a marvellous save, with Chelsea’s manager saying his team were denied a clear penalty late in yesterday’s draw.

Conor Gallagher’s shot struck the hand of Soucek, who was sliding to block the ball at the time. Neither referee Craig Pawson nor VAR Neil Swarbrick awarded the spot-kick.

It meant Chelsea would not be gifted the chance to win at West Ham and Potter sarcastically said: ‘It was a good save. 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. It looked quite a handball and, like I said, I didn’t know Tomas could get down so easily and save like that. It’s a good stop from him.

‘It’s not for me to say about VAR. Will you get more consistency from VAR? Well, you won’t 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.’

Tomas Soucek was labelled as West Ham’s ‘goalkeeper’ by Graham Potter for this handball incident

Chelsea players protested for a penalty but were waved away as VAR and referee Craig Pawson decided no action needed to be taken

In response, West Ham manager David Moyes said: ‘We had a huge decision that went against us at Stamford Bridge, so don’t forget that!’ 

That was in reference to West Ham’s late equaliser in September which was wrongly disallowed for a foul by Jarrod Bowen on Edouard Mendy.

Chelsea have now drawn their last three Premier League games, despite their lavish spending in January. Potter is still trying to turn his new players into a team and said: ‘You have to earn your luck. We can’t complain or wait for luck to turn for us. We have to keep working.’

Potter was unhappy with Soucek’s handball in the penalty area and labelled the West Ham midfielder’s save as a ‘good stop’

Potter also defended the recent performances of under-firing summer signing Marc Cucurella

Chelsea’s fans cheered when Marc Cucurella was substituted in the second half and Potter said: ‘Supporters are entitled to their opinion. 

‘He hasn’t become a bad player. But good players can go through bad times and we need to stick with him and stick together and try to help him.’

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