West Ham forward Jarrod Bowen says it was “hard to tell” whether the ball was completely out of play before the Hammers’ first goal against Arsenal on Thursday evening.

The 26-year-old cut the ball back from the byline before Tomas Soucek scored, and the on-field decision was that it did stay in play. VAR didn’t intervene as there wasn’t any definitive evidence to the contrary. Asked about the incident after the match, Bowen said:

“Listen, when it happened in a split-second I knew the ball was in midair so it’s probably hard to tell at the time”

“Obviously, you don’t want it to go out, so you try to keep it in play quickly and, like I said, it’s difficult and I haven’t seen it, but I was there at the time and it’s one of those where because the ball was in the air it was hard to tell. If it had been on the ground it would probably have been easier to tell.”

“All I could do was try and get it across to Tom or Mo [Kudus] and the goal was scored and it stood, so it was really, really important to get that first goal.”

It’s an honest response from Bowen

It’s one of those calls where we will probably never know the truth. Unlike the Newcastle goal, where Joe Willock had the ball at his feet on the ground, Bowen hit his pass in the air.

As Bowen says, with the ball not being on the grass when he played the pass back to Soucek, there is no way to tell if all of the ball had crossed the white line.

VAR made the right decision on the night

It should also be noted that Bowen inadvertently played a part in VAR not intervening. His right thigh obscured the ball from the best camera angle.

With the linesman having decided that the ball stayed in, VAR had no alternative but to stay with the on-field decision.