At first glance, West Ham United’s opening goal against Arsenal on Thursday night appeared to be out of play, so why wasn’t it ruled out?

Arsenal were on the losing side of a 2-0 result against West Ham United on Thursday, but the Hammers got going with a controversial opener that may have strayed out of play before it was finished by Tomas Soucek.

VAR checked the goal, initially looking at the relevant frame from the camera positioned on the goalline.

To the naked eye, it looked as though the ball was out of play, with the whole goalline and most of the post visible to the cameras.

The problem was the small slither of Jarrod Bowen’s thigh overlapping with the goalline.

Bowen’s thigh slightly obscured part of the post, and it’s not impossible part of the ball was also overlapping with the line behind the thigh.

As the VAR officials couldn’t be 100% sure, they couldn’t overrule the on-field call, which was to award the goal.

It’s a frustrating one for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, especially since it’s very possible the ball actually was out of play.

Just as with Joe Willock “keeping the ball in play” for Newcastle United’s goal against Arsenal, and the subsequent offside decision against Anthony Gordon, no one can say for sure whether the correct decision was made.

All we can say is that we didn’t have enough evidence to be certain that the on-field decision was incorrect.