Mark Noble is convinced Andy Carroll could have earned a point for West Ham in their loss to Tottenham on Sunday had it not been for Davinson Sanchez’s challenge.
Carroll appeared to be caught in mid-air by the Tottenham centre-back as he jumped for a corner in the last minute of the Hammers’ 3-2 defeat but referee Michael Oliver was unmoved.
After a Harry Kane brace and Christian Eriksen strike had put Spurs three clear West Ham battled back in vain, Javier Hernandez striking from close range before Serge Aurier’s sending off and a Cheikhou Kouyate header set up a grand stand finish at the London Stadium.
Nolan’s sense of injustice was only heightened because he believes a penalty handed to Southampton in their 3-2 win earlier in the season was for a similar foul by Pablo Zabaleta.
“I’m pretty sure Andy would have smashed that into the net – that’s the way we saw it,” Noble said.
“We had a similar situation go against us in the 93rd minute away at Southampton, having got ourselves back to 2-2 with 10 men. Sometimes these things pay you back but that wasn’t the case today.”
Though the defeat ended West Ham’s three year unbeaten run at home to their London rivals club captain Noble took heart from the way he and his team-mates had battled to turn a 3-0 deficit into a close match.
“I thought we started really well and were on top for the first 35 minutes,” he added. “The way we pressed, the way we played, created a couple of chances and really looked good.
“Mikey going off took our momentum away a bit and slowed the game, and then we let in a couple of really sloppy goals, which of course was disappointing.
“There was a little bit of shock going in 2-0 down at half-time, though – I didn’t think we deserved that. We could easily have folded and given up at 3-0, but instead we dug in and managed to make a game of it.”
