Frustrated Everton manager David Moyes believes his side were on the wrong end of a decisive penalty call against Leeds United on Monday night.
Leeds kicked off their Premier League return with a brilliant 1-0 win at home to the Toffees, substitute Lukas Nmecha marking his competitive debut with an 84th-minute match-winning penalty. How his opportunity to score came about was controversial, however, with Everton defender James Tarkowski penalised for a handball in the box.
Anton Stach’s long-range effort took a slight deflection off an Everton boot and ended up hitting the upper-arm of Tarkowski, who was adjudged by referee Chris Kavanagh to have intentionally blocked the effort illegally. A lengthy VAR check backed the man in the middle and substitute Nmecha held his nerve to fire beyond Jordan Pickford from 12 yards.
Tarkowski labelled the decision ‘bizarre’ when speaking to Sky Sports immediately after full-time, with himself and Moyes heading to speak with Kavanagh once the final whistle sounded. And the latter was also seeking answers in the dressing room once everyone was down the tunnel.
“If VAR has made the decision I think it made the wrong decision,” Moyes told the Liverpool Echo. “I’m obviously going to say it’s not a penalty and I believe it’s not a penalty. I’ve been to see the referee. The referee sort of took nothing to do with it. He thought it was to do with VAR, the decision they’ve made. I don’t know what else I can say… The frustration is that there’s lots of other frustrations.
David Moyes fumes over Leeds United penalty call
“We didn’t play well enough on the night, but the big frustration is that, if anything, in the second half we looked probably a little bit more likely than them and [like] we were going to get something out of it. I actually think the referees have had a poor weekend in the opening weekend. I think there’s been a lot of decisions which shouldn’t, I don’t think, [have been given] and tonight’s another one.
“The rules are supposed to be that if you keep your hands down to your side – and if anything he’s actually trying to get it behind his back as well. The ball takes a deflection on flight as well. You’re allowed to block it, and he’s leaned towards the ball, so we accept that. But I just don’t know… We saw one on Friday night [Liverpool vs Bournemouth] that wasn’t given, which looked a far, far clearer handball than it was tonight. And I know it was a different part of the pitch but I don’t understand that.”
Leeds will feel the penalty was just rewards for an excellent performance in which they hassled and harried their visitors throughout. Daniel Farke’s side saw a number of chances come and go in either half before the spot-kick and kept up the pace even after going ahead.
Joel Piroe, Willy Gnonto and Ao Tanaka were all guilty of spurning chances but Leeds continued to assert their dominance on Everton, who created little of note. Three points gave Farke an ideal start to the season ahead of Saturday’s tricky trip to Arsenal.
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