Play was paused for over four minutes during the eventual 1-0 defeat at London Stadium, as VAR overturned an offside decision for West Ham’s winner. Nayef Aguerd climbed highest to head in from a Thilo Kehrer free-kick but after an on-field offside decision, VAR assessed the call for over four minutes. They eventually determined the goal would stand and Saints never got going again in the capital, after a promising opening 25 minutes in the relegation six-pointer. Speaking after the match that condemned his side to remain bottom of the Premier League, Saints manager Selles was quick to deflect talk from the official’s decisions. Asked if the lengthy delay affected his side’s mentality,
Ruben Selles responded: “It should not. It should not because this is modern football with the VAR. We know those situations are coming and we need to be ready for that and in the same way they can be for you and can be against you. As I understood, I didn’t want the goal back, but the referee told me that they were checking different angles because it was not clear that he was onside or offside. We need to be ready to continue doing the things that we have been doing until that exact moment because they didn’t change their approach. So we need to be strong in those things. And I don’t think it was the four minutes, I think it was the goal per se that changed our mentality.”
West Ham players, some stood in offside positions, were then used to block the Saints defenders who travelled towards Aguerd and the crossed delivery.
Ruben Selles said: “Not any complaints. We know how it is and we know that the decision was there, we need to defend the situation better and then we need to be able to take those blocks because we expected that. So it’s nothing that is coming new or anything. For me, and I say from the very beginning, referees do their job and sometimes the decision is going to go for you and sometimes it’s not. I don’t think that anybody is trying to hurt us or anything. Today was a decision for them. We respect that decision and we will follow it and nothing to say about that.”
