Édouard Mendy could in fact miss Chelsea’s next game with ‘fake’ injury

West Ham’s last-minute equalizer today was ruled out after a VAR check for a foul on Édouard Mendy by Jarrod Bowen, which unsurprisingly drew the ire of Hammers boss David Moyes on the post-match interview circuit — against both VAR and Mendy himself, whom he accused of faking a shoulder injury.

We can certainly understand his frustrations, having been on the unfavored end of quite a few game-changing refereeing decisions of late, though I’d humbly submit that you don’t have to mine the rulebook too deep to find something about a foul being committed when one player kicks another, instead of, you know, kicking the ball. Two players go for a ball, one gets there first and wins it, the other one commits the foul. Basic stuff.

Goalkeepers do tend to get extra protection as well (though that didn’t help us on the first goal we conceded today), but this seems like a fairly obvious foul to me — though obviously I’m biased.

Moyes accusing Mendy of cheating is a bit rich however — let us not point any fingers at any of his supposedly much more noble players — especially as Mendy might in fact miss our next game with this supposedly fake shoulder injury.

Kepa Arrizabalaga, seen giving some advice to Kai Havertz before he came on to score the winning goal, could be set for his season debut on Tuesday against Dynamo Zagreb.