West Ham United play host to Crystal Palace in the Premier League at the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
David Moyes will be desperate for his West Ham side to make it three Premier League wins in a row, whilst Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson will be keen for his side to improve on their recent run of just one win and four defeats in their last five league games.
The Hammers are currently sitting in ninth spot in the table, and a win would put us right in the mix in the race for a top six finish this season.
It has been very much up and down for West Ham this term, but a victory this weekend would be the sign of some real progress.
There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be beating the South London side, especially given the fact that Eberechi Eze and Cheick Doucoure will be missing through injury.
Peter Bankes has been named as the lead VAR official for our clash with Palace this week, as confirmed via the Premier League’s official website.
Bankes has had plenty of history with the Hammers, and most recently took charge of one of our games just last month during our 2-2 draw with Newcastle – 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.
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 at St Mary’s last term, when we were hit with an FA charge following the game, after the players surrounded the referee. This came after Bankes pathetically 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.
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 – one of the worst decisions I have ever seen in my life.
Peter Bankes West Ham record
The 41-year-old has taken charge of 10 of our games and surprise, surprise…we’ve won only three of them (Transfermarkt).
Peter Bankes being on VAR duty for the West Ham vs Crystal Palace Premier League clash is terrible news for us. Let’s just hope that he doesn’t add to his lengthy list of errors this weekend.
The 41-year-old always seems to be an official who likes to take centre stage on every occasion. So I wouldn’t be surprised one little bit if he tries to do the same on Sunday
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