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Everton weren’t happy with the officials after the Leeds Utd game and James Tarkowski in particular might not be happy with one name on the list to take charge against Brighton.
As the biggest league in the world with a solid claim to be the best, the Premier League should be able to avoid controversy wherever possible when it comes to the appointment of officials.
Those in the middle are only human after all and will be fully aware of what managers and players think about them with Everton’s controversial defeat to Leeds United seeing the officials front and centre of the post match complaints from both David Moyes and James Tarkowski. The latter’s “handball” seeing a penalty being awarded and two points being dropped on the opening day with various pundits having their say on the call.
What did James Tarkowski say about official in handball controversy?
Tarkowski was clearly fuming at the time of the call and post-match with the 32-year old picking out one individual in particular for criticism, via Everton’s official website: “It’s not a penalty,” Tarkowski said. “As soon as the ref blew, I was pretty confident it was going to get overturned. My first question to him was ‘If my arm was by my side – which it was – is it a penalty?’ To which he said no.
“I’ve since read that I leaned into the ball, but there’s nothing unnatural about my arm being by my side. The ball’s allowed to hit your arm, it’s just not allowed to be away from your body unnaturally, which it wasn’t.
“I can’t understand it, really. The linesman gave it apparently, who was 45 yards away and I don’t understand how he can see what I’ve done with my arm from the angle. Bizarre – and it cost us a point in the end.”
Unfortunately for Tarkowski, the man who helped make the initial call to award the penalty, Lee Betts, will be watching his every move with the benefit of several monitors and the help of replays as the assistant VAR with the Premier League’s latest announcement on matchday officials.
This is who will on duty as Everton look to get off the mark: Referee: Stuart Attwell. Assistants: Con Hatzidakis, Nick Hopton. Fourth official: Tom Nield. VAR: James Bell. Assistant VAR: Lee Betts.
Was the assistant referee right to flag for a penalty?
In short, no. It is the murkiest of laws and one that will, on a weekly basis, cause problems, but on this occasion, Tarkowski looks like he clearly knows what it is and that he was entirely justified in feeling aggrieved.
According to Law 12, which covers handball, an infringement occurs when a player "touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger".
The law, which is detailed on the Football Association's website, goes on to explain that "a player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player's body movement for that specific situation".
To clarify, Tarkowski’s arm did make his body bigger, but it was justifiable in his attempts to block the shot. By definition, his arm was in the way of the ball because he was leaning towards the ball to block the shot, not because he put his arm out to block it. Given his comments after the defeat to Leeds, Tarkowski will be well advised to run around with his arms behind his back.
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