Andy Gray slams VAR after Edson Alvarez incident in Man United vs West Ham United

Andy Gray was amazed that VAR failed to intervene and award West Ham a penalty in their Premier League defeat against Manchester United.

Edson Alvarez was prevented from getting on the end of a corner after being grabbed around the neck by Man United midfielder Casemiro.

Referee Andy Madley did not point to the spot, while video assistant referee Chris Kavanagh also did not flag up the incident.

An image of the incident was shared by Richard Keys on his personal Twitter account [4 February].

And Gray agreed with Keys that Casemiro should have been penalised during the first half of West Ham’s eventual 3-0 loss at Old Trafford.

“How did they miss this?” he said on beIN SPORTS, as shared via the broadcaster’s Twitter page [4 February].

“The problem is Alvarez, and that Casemiro has him the minute the ball’s played. Still got him, still got him round the neck, still got him.

“When the player who the ball arrives at is being strangled… Alvarez could have headed that if his neck wasn’t being grabbed.

“I don’t know why VAR is there if they can’t see that. If they think that is okay, we’ll never see another penalty given.
“That’s not two players coming together in the box – one is clearly impending the other.”

West Ham robbed at Old Trafford
First things first: West Ham were poor against Manchester United. The Irons produced a terrible performance pretty much from start to finish.

However, had a penalty been awarded at an important moment in the game, it could easily have been a different outcome in Manchester.
Casemiro clearly fouled Alvarez, of that there is no debate. If the referee and the linesman nearest to the incident missed it, that is bad enough.

But to then have an assistant official, who has the benefit of seeing a replay, also miss it is unforgiveable.

Man United got away with one and went on to ease to the three points at Old Trafford.

All that said, while David Moyes was unhappy with the officials, the Scotsman and his players cannot use this incident as an excuse.

It leaves the Irons winless in six matches to begin 2024 and all of a sudden all the momentum previously built up has now gone.

In other West Ham news, one player scored a 2/10 rating for his performance against Manchester United.