Jamie Carragher has delivered his verdict on West Ham’s controversial disallowed goal in Arsenal’s crucial 1-0 win at the London Stadium on Sunday
20:39, 11 May 2026Updated 21:49, 11 May 2026
Jamie Carragher discussed West Ham’s disallowed goal against Arsenal(Image: Sky Sports)
Jamie Carragher says that referee Chris Kavanagh and VAR made the correct decision to rule out West Ham’s late equaliser against Arsenal.
After Leandro Trossard put the Gunners ahead in the 83rd minute, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side thought they had snatched a point deep into stoppage-time.
Callum Wilson lashed home from inside the box after the ball fell into his path, but, following a long VAR check, the goal was chalked off. It was viewed that Pablo fouled David Raya in the build-up.
As a cross came into the Arsenal box, Raya came out to punch but while he didn’t get the cleanest contact on the ball, Pablo appeared to hold the left glove of the goalkeeper, sending him to the floor.
Arsenal were incensed and Kavanagh, who didn’t initially give the foul, changed his mind after going across to his pitch-side monitor. Communicating his decision to those inside the stadium and watching across the world, Kavanagh said: “After review, West Ham number 19 commits a foul on the goalkeeper. Final decision is a free-kick.”
While West Ham were furious that the goal was ruled out, Carragher believes Kavanagh and VAR came to the right call in the end. Speaking on Sky Sports Monday Night Football, the ex-Liverpool defender dissected the incident and explained how the force of Pablo’s “grip” made the decision a straightforward one for the referee.
West Ham were furious after a late leveller against Arsenal was disallowed
The decision caused a stir on social media with supporters of rival club pointing to perceived inaccuracies around the decision but Carragher shut those theories down, saying: “Well people are claiming, Manchester City fans might be claiming this, Bernardo Silva did one at Everton last week. And we weren’t sitting on this show saying that shouldn’t be a penalty. Now, there is a reason this is a foul on the goalkeeper – and it is, whether you like Arsenal or not, don’t let that distort the facts.
“The fact is this is a foul. Now, you could argue about the shirt tug here. I’m not going to go too much on that because he’s getting held and there’s grappling later on.
“But the big difference is what comes now. Now we know Pablo is getting held by Trossard, we know that. It’s that. It’s not even the arm on him. It’s the grip.
“It’s the holding. Now if that arm was in the air flailing, I’d probably say it’s not. But you can’t grab a goalkeeper on the arm here and stop him raising his hand.
“It can’t. That can’t happen. You can’t do that. And then people are crying. Today, I’m seeing on social media everywhere, ‘Arsenal get away with this all the time. Week after week, week after week.’
“I don’t think they do. I don’t think they do.”
West Ham had a late equaliser against Arsenal overturned on Sunday afternoon(Image: Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Showing examples of similar incidents – including one that saw an Arsenal goal disallowed at Leicester in a Premier League game in 2023 – Carragher added: “I look at these situations and I go back to why people probably get disgruntled here because Arsenal push the boundaries, if you like. So you see [William] Saliba here, he’s backing into the goalkeeper. Is he making it really difficult for him? Yes, he’s got his arm up.
“Now you could stop it here and say, ‘look where his arm is’. But when it carries on, he’s not really stopping him. The goalkeeper has to do better on that one.
“We go to another one against Aston Villa. Gabriel again, just pushing them as far as they can, backing into the goalkeeper. Maybe catches him there. Should the goalkeeper do better? Yes!
“It’s not the same as what we saw at the weekend. But what is the same is what happened three years ago at Leicester when we see Ben White with his hand here, he’s got the grip as we saw yesterday with Pablo, that grip is there on the glove. He then hooks him there and makes sure he can’t lift that right arm up and he’s almost just using one arm.
“Arsenal get the ball back, Trossard puts it in the goal. Goal disallowed. So this idea constantly I’ve seen all day, ‘oh they’re getting away with it’.
“They’re not. They push the boundaries as far as they can. They’re the best on set pieces. But when Arsenal did what we saw yesterday, they got pulled up for it.”