David Moyes accused the VAR official of a dereliction of duty for failing to rule out the first Tottenham goal in West Ham’s 2-0 Premier League defeat on Tuesday.
Son Heung-Min had a first-half effort ruled out for a marginal offside, but the home side took the lead on 64 minutes thanks to a Tomas Soucek own goal.
However, they were somewhat fortunate to not see it chalked off as the ball appeared to hit the arm of Davinson Sanchez in the build-up.
Harry Kane added a late second goal for Spurs and a second successive defeat since restarting the 2019-20 season left West Ham in danger of dropping into the relegation zone, if fellow strugglers Bournemouth pick up points on Wednesday.
And Moyes was far from happy with the first Tottenham goal, especially with West Ham seeing efforts of their own ruled out in similar circumstances earlier in the season.
He said: “Would there be uproar if it was ruled out?
“I thought that every ball that hit an arm and led to a goal was to be chalked off.
“If that’s the rule, I was worried that I only had two quick looks at it and it’s definitely hit his arm, so it shouldn’t have counted.
“I am asking who is it making that decision? We scored a really good goal in the 90th minute at Sheffield United and the boy claimed it was handball and we couldn’t believe it.
“Do I think it is a good rule? No I don’t. Whoever it was on VAR tonight, didn’t do his job right because he didn’t abide by the rules we were told we are supposed to play to.”
West Ham were the first team to win at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last season and held firm in the opening 20 minutes.
Lukasz Fabianski palmed a shot from Lucas Moura over the crossbar and saved easily from Kane, before Son cut inside and found the bottom corner of the net, only to see it ruled out.
Moura wasted a gilt-edged chance on the stroke of half time and Eric Dier and Kane had chances afte the restart before an unmarked Pablo Fornals missed the target for West Ham from 10 yards.
Jarrod Bowen hit a post after Soucek’s own goal had broken the deadlock, but Son sent Kane through to seal West Ham’s fate ahead of another derby with Chelsea at London Stadium on Wednesday (8.15pm, Sky Sports).
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