Everton captain James Tarkowski spoke to the ECHO after conceding a controversial late penalty against Leeds United at Elland Road
Everton captain James Tarkowski has hit out against the controversial late penalty decision that gifted Leeds United a 1-0 win at Elland Road on Monday night.
Referee Chris Kavanagh pointed to the spot after the Blues defender flung his body at a shot by Anton Stach which struck his upper arm, which was not raised, and substitute Lucas Nmecha converted from 12 yards out to secure the three points for the newly promoted Yorkshire side. Tarkowski told the ECHO: “It’s not a penalty. I leaned into the ball and it hit my arm.
“I couldn’t see it. My arm’s by my side, so unless I put my arms right behind my back, it’s still going to hit my arm because it’s right by my side, so I don’t understand how it can be given as a penalty.
“The linesman has given it from 45 yards on the side and the referee has not. How he can judge that from that angle I don’t know, it’s bizarre and I can’t really understand it.
“I was confident when he was giving the decision that it was going to get overturned. I asked the question to the referee: ‘If my arm is by my side, is it a penalty?’ to which he said: ‘no,’ so I don’t understand how it’s been given.
“It’s like they’ve just made up a rule on the screen and tagged it up just before to make a reason to give a penalty. I said to the referee: ‘Why can’t you go and see it?’
“He can go over to the screen and if that’s his judgement of it but the way it hits me, it’s never a penalty. It’s a shame really.”
The incident took place just 15 days after Tarkowski had conceded another controversial penalty in Everton’s 2-2 draw with Manchester United in the Premier League Summer Series at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. On that occasion, he was adjudged to have brought down Amad who had gone to ground theatrically despite minimal contact and referee Thomas Bramall, and the ECHO was told that the 35-year-old official apologised to Everton’s players afterwards, admitting he got it wrong.
When asked about this, Tarkowski said: “Maybe they’ll just keep saying sorry to us and keep giving them against us?”
Reflecting on the overall performance, the defender said: “We didn’t play great in the first half, and we weathered the storm for the full half rather than just the first 15 to 20 minutes. In the second half, we played a bit better without creating loads of chances and stuck in it.
“It probably would have been a good draw for us, taking the point, because for all the domination they had in the first half, apart from a few corners, there wasn’t much danger after that.
“We didn’t play great at all, but we always expected a tough match and for all the domination that they had of the ball, they didn’t create a lot against us.”