David Moyes is perplexed over a lack of refereeing consistency after Fulham were awarded a penalty for a similar incident to the one that saw Everton denied against Arsenal just 48 hours earlier
David Moyes remonstrates with the fourth official Oliver Langford during the match between Everton and Arsenal at Hill Dickinson Stadium on December 20, 2025
David Moyes remonstrates with the fourth official Oliver Langford during the match between Everton and Arsenal at Hill Dickinson Stadium on December 20, 2025
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(Image: Oli SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
David Moyes admits it’s difficult to understand how Everton are being treated by referees after Fulham were awarded a penalty against Nottingham Forest for a remarkably similar incident to when his side failed to win a spot-kick at home to Arsenal just 48 hours earlier. Raul Jimenez beat Forest’s Premier League debutant in between the sticks John Victor with the resultant penalty to give the Cottagers a 1-0 win after Douglas Luiz had kicked fellow Brazilian Kevin and referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot.
In contrast, when Arsenal’s William Saliba had kicked his French compatriot Thierno Barry of Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday night, on-field match official Sam Barrott was not interested and neither was Michael Salisbury on VAR duties, who had earlier prompted Barrott to review the incident that resulted in the Gunners being awarded a penalty.
Moyes had earlier stated in the open section of his press conference that “it feels as though certain clubs seem to get those decisions and other clubs don’t. We seem to be on the latter side of that.”
He then added: “They don’t make it easy whatever you want, they don’t want have a conversation about it really. They will have but they don’t really want to because they’re finding it probably very difficult to explain the decisions.”
And then asked in the embargoed section of his press conference if Everton were going to compile footage of similar incidents to try and seek explanations, Moyes said: “No, I don’t think we are, no, I don’t think we’re going to compile anything.
“It’s just getting a wee bit difficult to work out quite often at the moment, you know, whether we’re getting treated well or whether we’re not, and sometimes good explanations and understanding and maybe explaining other reasons why might help, but it might not help either.
“I think we’re just finding probably that last night’s decision was not disimilar to ours, but it was given. The referee on field gave the decision immediately.
“I wondered why the referee in our game didn’t, and it took VAR... and actually probably the more worrying thing was, it was 100% a penalty kick which Arsenal get because of Jake O’Brien’s arms and where they are. There’s no question but the on-field referee didn’t give that on the day. It was VAR who eventually came in and had to do it, because he was sent to the screen, wasn’t he? So, you would have expected the referee to see two arms up there, wouldn’t you?
“Or the linesman, that you’d have expected them to see, which would have happened in old money by the way, if you’d seen his arms up, it was a penalty kick. So it’s not generally just me moaning, and actually you have to say after the game, I was the one who came out and I said I wasn’t sure it was a penalty kick, but after what I saw last night, I’m saying, you can’t do that and not do what’s happened to us. Well, I don’t think so.”
Moyes remains perplexed by O’Brien’s actions in his aerial duel with Riccardo Calafiori in which he gave a penalty away. The 62-year-old dismisses suggestions that the 6ft 6in Republic of Ireland international might have been fouled.
He said: “No, I was annoyed with Jake, I thought it was a really, unbelievably poor decision he made to put his arms up in the air.
“He said he got pushed when he was jumping, he got pushed and his arms flew up, so one way or the other, if you put your arms up there you’re going to have to, and there are moments where you do get pushed and you’re using your arms for balance and not to look so bad.
“I said: ‘Well if you get pushed you might as well do what everybody else has done and fall down’. Maybe Thierno didn’t roll about enough to earn the decision, I don’t know, but I don’t really want my teams to be like that, I actually don’t want to see soft penalty kicks.
“I’m not a believer of soft penalty kicks, so that’s why maybe my thinking after the game. But after what I saw last night, I’m saying well, if that’s the way it’s going to be, why are we not getting the same decisions?”
When Everton were beaten at Leeds United in their opening game of the season after James Tarkowski was controversially deemed to have handled the ball in the area, Moyes claimed afterwards that referees had endured a bad weekend, but since then he has tempered his comments about match officials.
Asked about his remarks, the Glaswegian gaffer said: “They did and I’m not criticising referees today, I’m questioning.
“Surely the on-field referee didn’t need VAR to decide that Jake O’Brien had his two hands up in the air, and that’s me going against my own team. Why did he need to wait on VAR to make that decision?”