Everton star slams "not good enough" refereeing call that led to Man City win

11 February 2024 , 12:45

958     0

James Tarkowski felt aggrieved with a refereeing decision

James Tarkowski felt Everton were the victims of a wrong refereeing decision that ultimately led to defeat at Manchester City.

Toffees centre-back Tarkowski claimed the corner from which City scored their opener should not have been given – as it came off the head of Ruben Dias rather than Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

“We got punished off a dubious corner,” said Tarkowski. “For me, Calvert-Lewin's trying to head it that way and I think it was Dias trying to head it the other way. It goes where Dias heads it and then they get the corner again. So, once again, another decision that goes against us, but there's nothing we can do about that.

“I just don't feel like there's many that have gone our way. I don't remember sitting back and thinking 'Oh, that's gone in our favour'. Then you go and speak to the ref and it's like 'We'll, look at it'. Well, it's no good looking at it now, is it? We need you to look at it on the pitch and get it right.

“They say we apologise for this, we apologise for that, but that's not good enough. It doesn't give us a draw or a point or a win or whatever it is. So it does feel like a lot has gone against us more than for us. That's the way this season has been so far. But I can't whinge and complain. We've just got to crack on with it.”

Everton chiefs face transfer backlash from fans after deadline day disaster

Haaland's opener came after 71 with City struggling to breach the Everton backline for more than an hour. Shortly after that the Norwegian, who has just returned from injury, scored his second as he raced clear before finishing impressively.

The loss leaves the Merseyside outfit in the relegation zone, one point off Luton Town in 17th despite playing a game more. Everton are already battling against a 10-point deduction and could yet see more points docked amid their continued financial issues.

Erling Haaland scored from the resulting corner to set Man City on their way to three points

Toffees boss Sean Dyche didn't bemoan Haaland's strike following the loss, instead, he called on his players to take note of the City star, who doesn't care how he scores, provided he's in the goals.

He said: “I must say his finish for the first one, I have been speaking to the players recently about this, footballers scoring trendy goals – whippers, dippers, clippers. He [Haaland] doesn’t think about that. Just score a goal. That’s the trendiest thing you’ll ever do. And he showed that today, a good technique. Just smash it and don’t worry about anything else.”

and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our

David McDonnell