Everton m…….anager Sean Dyche reacts to Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat at home in the Premier League. Following Everton’s defeat to Arsenal, Sean Dyche was left upset by the decision-making process.
The Blues manager believes his team should have been awarded a penalty in the first half and questioned the amount of extra time at the end of the game, with fourth official Anthony Taylor signaling for only 240 seconds during a season in which many games have gone over 100 minutes.
Dyche said that his squad fell against a good Arsenal side that played better at Goodison Park and won thanks to Leandro Trossard’s second-half strike.
But he was plainly irritated by the officiating on a day when Everton’s wait for their first Premier League victory was stretched by another week.
Dyche pointed to Abdoulaye Doucoure’s burst into the box midway through the first half as he argued his side should have been awarded a penalty with the game goalless. Referee Simon Hooper waved away the home side’s appeals after Doucoure powered into the area and went down under a challenge from William Saliba.
After the match, Dyche said: “I can’t work out why we don’t get a penalty for Doucoure, for the simple reason that in the second half Beto pushed it past a centre-half and he [Gabriel] got booked [for bringing him down]. It was a very similar challenge to me. But then again I think we all lose clarity on what is and is not a penalty.”
Dyche also criticised the addition of just four minutes at the end as his side chased an equaliser – referring to the draw at Sheffield United a fortnight ago in which Oli McBurnie almost scored a dramatic winner in the eighth minute of stoppage time when only six had been awarded.
He said: “Four minutes at the end – two weeks ago they almost can’t wait for a goal by adding more minutes onto those given, yesterday I think it was 17 minutes at Villa. I don’t know about some of these things, I know it will take a while to iron out but you do need some of these things to work for you and not against you, that is for sure.”
His concern was amplified by his decision to make tactical tweaks in the 87th minute – bringing on Youssef Chermiti and James Garner for a late rally. He suggested those substitutions were made in the belief they would have more time to have an impact.
Dyche said: “By then you are searching for a moment but it does happen. Four minutes, I was very surprised, I think everyone in the stadium was very surprised after what we have been told in the directives of the new season and after what I have seen, and after what the feeling of other games has been – and other games we have played in, let alone all the numbers I keep seeing across football.
“Then four goes up, which is now almost extraordinary, whereas last season that would have been standard.” We’ve been advised that almost everything would be halted. Everything did not appear to have been stopped and added on today. Anyway, I’m not going to cry over it because Arsenal is a very good team, they played very well today, and we didn’t do enough to win.”
Leave a Reply