Everton manager David Moyes was furious with the referee’s decision to award a penalty kick to Leeds United in their 2025/26 EPL opener on Monday night.
Center referee Chris Kavanagh grabbed headlines after awarding a controversial penalty to the newly-promoted side for a handball by Everton captain James Tarkowski.
Leeds United midfielder Anton Stach fired in a shot late in the game that hit Tarkowski on his upper arm although his arms were by his side.
It proved to be a game-changing decision as substitute Lukas Nmetcha fired in past Jordan Pickford from 12 yards for the only goal of the game.
Speaking after the defeat, David Moyes was unhappy with the referee’s decision, but revealed his side’s performance was also not encouraging.
“The goal was completely wrong, really harsh. It’s difficult to lose on that,” Moyes revealed.
“I’ve been in and spoken to the referee. They seem to think because you lean, your arms can go away. You’re allowed to lean in football, unless someone’s going to pull one of these rules out that if you lean, it’s a penalty.”
Leeds United dominated the game and created several opportunities to open the scoring but were wasteful in front of goal.
Nmetcha’s penalty was however enough to seal a win in their first match back in the English Premier League after gaining promotion last season.
“The ball took a deflection, I don’t know where Tarky would have had to get his arm chopped of to. It wasn’t outside his body, it wasn’t doing anything different.
It’s not been a good week for me, I’ve only seen some of the referees and some of the performances but tonight, it was a poor decision. But it might not have been the referee, VAR had a chance to get that decision right and I felt like it wasn’t fair”, he added.
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