Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas looks back on a season of frustrating calls
A Premier League VAR monitor is seen during the Premier League match between Everton and Chelsea at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images
A Premier League VAR monitor is seen during the Premier League match between Everton and Chelsea at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images
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Everton’s concern over their treatment by officials is based in a season-long campaign of frustration.
Recent weeks have seen the club denied two potential penalties at key moments in two defining games in their battle for European football. The most recent - the decision not to award a spot kick when Mateus Fernandes handled the ball as West Ham United led on Saturday has prompted CEO Angus Kinnear to write to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) to raise issues over the consistency of decisions.
And that is a fair approach to take given how Everton can argue several decisions that have gone against them have been inconsistent with calls for opposing teams within their own fixtures.
The most blatant disappointment to cost Everton this season was the call not to award a penalty when William Saliba kicked through the back of Thierno Barry’s leg in the narrow home defeat to Arsenal in December.
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It was later decided that a penalty should have been given, according to the Premier League's Key Match Incidents Panel. In a game of few chances - Arsenal’s only goal also came from the spot - a penalty would have provided Everton with a glorious chance to take something from the game.
Everton conceded penalties in the opening two games of the Premier League season, both for handball. At Leeds United, James Tarkowski was penalised when a late block was adjudged to have been foul play. While he was moving his body towards the ball, the effort took a deflection and his arm remained tight to his body. If that was a penalty - and it was one that proved the difference between a draw and a defeat - it is hard to defend the decision over Fernandes.
The IFAB Laws of the Game state it is an offence when “the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised” - the West Ham midfielder may not have meant to swipe the ball from Barry but he does so while wrapping his arms around the player.
Not only did the player put their arms in a situation whereby they risked the ball hitting their hand, he did so while engaged in an act that could also be deemed a foul - it was later ruled an accidental touch while the players were “grappling” but this was not a two-way incident, making that explanation baffling. Most pundits, commentators and ex-referees who have shared their opinion have said it should have been a penalty.
Everton felt they were hard done by with a shot that hit Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s arm from close range in the home game against Brighton. That led to a penalty Danny Welbeck missed, but it was considered a harsh call given Dewsbury-Hall’s proximity to the shot and that his hand was carried skyward by his momentum.
When I asked David Moyes for his views on a similar incident in the away draw at Burnley, the Blues boss asked how close Jaidon Anthony’s handball (to a Tyler Dibling shot) had been to Dewsbury-Hall’s and was right to draw comparisons. The difference was Brighton got a penalty whereas Everton did not. That would have been an opportunity to take the lead at Burnley with just minutes left in a game that ended in a draw.
There have been other frustrating incidents, too. Everton won at Aston Villa in January but had an early goal from Jake O’Brien disallowed because Harrison Armstrong was in an offside position.
The midfielder was under the flight of the ball that O’Brien headed in and he did jump for it. He did not connect, though, nor did he impede anyone. Weeks later, Everton lost at home to Bournemouth. The winning goal was scored by Amine Adli, who finished when James Hill headed a free-kick across the box. His teammate, Enes Unal, was clearly offside when that cross came in and, like Armstrong at Villa Park, leapt for the ball but just missed it. He was not penalised despite a VAR check, however.
Everton have had some fortune - James Tarkowski could have conceded a penalty late in the win over Chelsea, though the game was over when that call was made, and Michael Keane avoided censure for a coming together with Kai Havertz at Arsenal, a game Everton still lost. But big decisions not falling in the Blues' favour have proved costly, including what was also a solid shout for a spot kick when the recent Merseyside derby was goalless - when Curtis Jones collided with Dewsbury-Hall.