Jamie Carragher calls for more technology after VAR was unable to rule out Tomas Soucek’s controversial opener in West Ham’s win at Arsenal… as he says ‘the ball looked out’ before Jarrod Bowen’s cross on the byline

Jamie Carragher believes officials need more technology after Tomas Soucek’s controversial opener against Arsenal, with VAR unable to determine whether the ball had gone out of play before Jarrod Bowen crossed it back in.

West Ham secured a famous 2-0 win over title chasers Arsenal on Thursday night thanks to Soucek’s goal before former Gunners defender Konstantinos Mavropanos headed home in the second half.

However, there was another VAR controversy in a match involving the Gunners after it was claimed the ball had crossed the byline before Bowen hooked the ball across goal for Soucek to poke home for the opener.

It was not the first time Arsenal have been on the wrong side of a marginal decision, after Mikel Arteta was furious with Anthony Gordon’s goal in a 1-0 loss to Newcastle in similar circumstances last month.

Carragher believes it is ‘virtually impossible’ to get such calls right with the assistant on the other side of the pitch and wondered if it was possible to have technology along the byline.

VAR was unable to determine whether the ball went out of bounds before Jarrod crossed Bowen for the opener

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The Sky Sports pundit wrote on At Newcastle I thought the ball stayed in, but on both occasions the referee’s assistant is on the other side so it’s virtually impossible for him to make a decision.

“Is it possible to get technology past the byline?”

Football already has goal-line technology to immediately notify referees when the ball has crossed the line, but referees have found it much more difficult to make the call in other circumstances.

Arteta – who was on the wrong side of a controversial VAR decision the last time Arsenal went on an angry tirade, insisting the current technology was ‘not good enough’.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta claimed technology is ‘not good enough’ after Tomas Soucek’s goal

Soucek’s goal was eventually awarded as West Ham secured a shock 2–0 win over Arsenal

He said: ‘If the technology we have at the moment is not good enough to give us that answer (or the ball has gone out of bounds), we have to win the game without it.

‘I have not seen it. They say it’s not final. It’s a shame that with the technology we have it’s not so clear so we can tell if it’s out or in.

‘It’s finished. It’s gone. There’s nothing we can do about it now.’

Arsenal, who scored 30 shots to West Ham’s six, have now taken just four points in their last four league matches.

Moyes said on his historic night: ‘It was a brilliant defensive job, great structure, organization and discipline. They had a lot of ball possession, too much for my taste, but we did a great job.

‘Arsenal played incredibly well and put us under a lot of pressure, but we have to say that a lot of football is defensive. Sometimes you don’t want to talk about it too much, but we did a really good job.

‘Arsenal made their living here, remember. I thought we defended fantastically well.’