By Nurudeen Obalola
West Ham defeated Manchester United 2-1 at the London Stadium in an English Premier League clash overshadowed by a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) controversy on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, Chelsea bounced back from their defeat at Liverpool last week to beat Newcastle United 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, while Crystal Palace saw off Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at Selhurst Park foe their first win of the campaign.
The match at London Stadium had several big misses and three goals, but the biggest talking point was the penalty awarded to West Ham late on.
Centre referee David Coote had seen nothing wrong in a challenge by <span;>Matthijs de Ligt on Danny Ings, but he was called to the monitor to review the incident.
Replays showed little wrong with the challenge as the two players appeared to run into each other, but Coote, after spending a long time to look at the replays, changed his initial decision and awarded a penalty to West Ham.
Jarrod Bowen stepped up to score the spot kick in the second minute of stoppage time to restore West Ham’s lead.
The hosts, after seeing Manchester United miss a hatful of big opportunities in the first half, took the lead through substitute Crysencio Summerville in the 74th minute.
Casemiro brought the visitors level seven minutes later with a close-range header, but West Ham were not denied their third win of the campaign as they overtook Manchester United into 13th place, both sides level on 11 points from nine games.
At Stamford Bridge, Cole Palmer scored his seventh Premier League goal of the season to lead past Newcastle United 2-1.
The 47th minute goal earned Chelsea the points after Alexander Isak had cancelled out Nicolas Jackson’s opener in the first half, as the Blues rose to fourth and Newcastle United dropped to 12th in the table.
At Selhurst Park, Jean-Philippe Matete scored the only goal of the match off a clever Ebenezer Eze assist to earn Crystal Palace a 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur, their first of the season.
RESULTS
West Ham 2-1 Manchester United
Crystal Palace 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Chelsea 2-1 Newcastle United
