VAR may have overlooked a possible red card in the Nottingham Forest vs. West Ham match

Nottingham Forest strengthened their Premier League presence with a decisive 3-0 victory over West Ham, though the match was not without controversy.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s team entered half-time with a numerical advantage after Edson Alvarez was sent off for a second yellow card offense. In the second half, Nottingham Forest displayed total dominance as Ola Aina and Callum Hudson-Odoi each scored from outside the box to extend the lead.

Chris Wood also made headlines with yet another goal, placing him joint-second in the Premier League scoring charts alongside Bryan Mbuemo. Speaking on TalkSPORT after the game, Jamie O’Hara praised Wood as a highly underrated player who deserves more recognition at Nottingham Forest.

However, the game wasn’t entirely without controversy. A first-half incident seemed to go unnoticed by VAR, which could have further complicated matters for West Ham. Around the 34th minute, Ryan Yates tangled with Crysencio Summerville, and while Yates was down, Summerville appeared to kick downward towards Yates’s head, who remained on the ground.

Although only Summerville knows his intent, it looked questionable, particularly as he could have easily stepped away. Instead, he seemed to press his legs downwards.

Questions around VAR consistency arose once again. While it wasn’t necessarily an obvious red card, similar fouls, such as Wolves’ Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s incident last season, have resulted in red cards. In this case, however, it seemed VAR did not thoroughly review the action, if at all.