West Ham United fans will be extremely angry after hearing the latest Premier League announcement ahead of our clash with Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
The Premier League meeting with Nottingham Forest will be the last game West Ham have for two weeks, with the international break on the horizon.
Hammers boss David Moyes will be desperate for his team to win against Olympiacos on Thursday night and then Forest on Sunday, with a poor run of form leading for to calls for him to be sacked.
Forest will be a tough team to beat – they proved against Aston Villa a couple of days ago just how strong they are defensively and how potent they can be on the counter attack.
Nothing less than a win will do for West Ham, after a run that has seen us take just four points from our last seven Premier League games.
However, we may well have our work cut out at the London Stadium against the East Midlands outfit this weekend…
West Ham fans will be spitting feathers after Premier League announcement ahead of Nottingham Forest clash
The Premier League have confirmed via their official website that Peter Bankes will be on VAR duty for our clash with Forest this weekend.
The Hammers have a lot of history with the 41-year-old referee.
He was in charge during our 2-1 loss to Brentford during the 2021/22 season and put in one of the worst performances ever witnessed by a referee at the London Stadium.
Bankes also incorrectly awarded Tottenham a penalty during our 1-1 draw at the London Stadium last season, only for it to be overturned by VAR.
The 41-year-old officiated our draw with Southampton last term, when we were hit with an FA charge after the game, after the players surrounded the referee. This came after Bankes inexcusably blocked Jarrod Bowen from intercepting a Southampton player immediately before they scored.
In addition to all of that, Bankes was on VAR duty when Anthony Taylor awarded Arsenal a ridiculously weak penalty at the Emirates two seasons ago, after Vladimir Coufal actually won the ball.
Bankes’s indiscretions with West Ham didn’t end there though. The Premier League referee was on VAR when Fabian Balbuena was handed a ludicrous red card during our home match against Chelsea a few years ago.
And most recently, West Ham drew 2-2 with Newcastle at the London Stadium – a result that could have been very different had Peter Bankes performed even to what would be considered a decent standard.
Bankes refused to hand Bruno Guimaraes a second yellow card after he tripped Jarrod Bowen in transition. He also failed to book Jamaal Lascelles for elbowing Lucas Paqueta in the head.
Then, the 41-year-old amazingly didn’t hand Miguel Almiron a yellow after he gestured for him to hand a Hammers player a booking – an offence that Emerson Palmieri committed earlier on in the match and was punished for with a yellow!
That was all inside the first-half! Then during the second period, Bankes awarded a free-kick to Newcastle after Paqueta fairly dispossessed Sandro Tonali. The Magpies then went on to score from that set play.
So you can see why the fans will be upset that Bankes will yet again be involved with one of our games. Big clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United start campaigns for certain referees not to be involved with the officiating of their games.
I think it’s time that West Ham do the same with Bankes, especially if he has another shocker during our clash with Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
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