Premier League: Sam Allardyce accuses referee of guessing wrongly over disallowed Alex Song goal

West Ham manager Sam Allarydce said referee Neil Swarbrick ‘guessed wrongly’ when he disallowed Alex Song’s early goal for offside in the 2-1 defeat to Arsenal.

The former Gunner thought he had given West Ham the lead when he drove in a brilliant volley from outside the box through a crowd of players.

But the effort was ruled out for offside as Hammers players were deemed to be interfering with play and in the eyeline of keeper Wojciech Szczesny.

We would have been 1-0 up and on the basis of our form at home I would have banked on us not losing.

Allarydce, though, said the decision proved extremely costly and accused the referee of guessing that players were blocking Szczesny’s view.

“I asked the fourth official why he disallowed it and he said our player was in front of the keeper, so I then said how can you judge that from where the assistant is,” he told Sky Sports. “It had to be the referee who judged that was the case, so having looked at it at half-time both of them are wrong and sadly we have not the goal we deserved.

“If the referee has given it for being in front of his eyeline then he has guessed and guessed wrongly sadly. We would have been 1-0 up and on the basis of our form at home I would have banked on us not losing.

“But because that was taken away from us we couldn’t gain that advantage and then fell asleep for five minutes at the end of the first half and ended up bizarrely 2-0 down.”

After falling behind, the Hammers did stage a spirited second-half fightback and halved the deficit shortly after the break through Cheikhou Kouyate.

But they could not grab an equaliser and Allardyce was also disappointed they weren’t awarded a penalty.

“I think we should have had a penalty when Morgan Amalfitano was wrestled to the ground by (Nacho) Monreal,” he said. “It was a disappointing day but a great effort.

“To finish with nothing and a defeat, the way we have had to accept it, is very disappointing indeed.

“We have had two of the hardest games in 48 hours, Chelsea away and Arsenal home. We didn’t deserve anything at Chelsea but we did today and we have to take it on the chin, not let it affect our confidence and hope we get back to winning ways and better decisions against West Brom.”

Despite his disappointments, Allardyce admitted he was delighted with how his side have progressed in 2014.

“In one year 56 points is pretty good going,” he said. “To try and get 56 or more in a season would be one hell of a season. It’s been a terrific 2014, it’s been a fantastic recovery from where we were at the end of the January, particularly from the players.”