Everton’s match last night was once again marred by VAR controversy, in which Newcastle United were awarded a penalty, and the hosts saw their shouts waved away.
It is an outcome that has become all too commonplace for the Toffees, who now are simply used to seeing their protestations ignored.
On this occasion though, there seems to be a real split about whether the decision was warranted or not.
Dan Burn, the man who committed the tackle that led to such furore around Goodison Park, has since broken his silence on the matter.
Dan Burn reacts to penalty incident with Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Speaking after the match, in which he was at the very forefront given his alleged foul on Dominic Calvert-Lewin was the main flashpoint of the second half, Burn’s comments were hotly-anticipated.
After all, the towering defender had found himself on the wrong side of Everton’s number nine, forced to clumsily throw his body between man and ball to stop a certain goal.
Many will debate whether that means that Calvert-Lewin instead kicked Burn, but the fact of the matter is that were the defender not there, or simply in the right position to prevent the chance, he would not have had to make such a rash last-gasp attempt at the ball.
He was extremely fortunate to get away with it, and reflecting on the incident, admitted to Sky Sports: ‘I think it was probably one of them that if the referee gives it, it probably doesn’t get overturned. I felt Dominic kicked me but I’ve not seen it back.’
Seamus Coleman confronted referee Craig Pawson at full-time to question this decision.
Everton ride their luck to claim draw vs Newcastle United
Going into last night’s game, it was always bound to be a difficult one for the hosts to win, despite the Magpies travelling to Merseyside without Callum Wilson or Alexander Isak.
After all, Everton manager Sean Dyche was not without his absentees too, missing Vitaliy Mykolenko and Jarrad Branthwaite, two stalwarts of his preferred backline, through late injuries.
Therefore, with James Garner a makeshift right-back, and Ashley Young forced back into left-back, there were very justified fears at seeing Harvey Barnes and Anthony Gordon take them on for 90 minutes.
In the end, they both performed admirably, despite the Toffees riding their luck at times.
It helped that James Tarkowski’s moment of brainlessness, throwing Sandro Tonali to the ground, was bailed out by Jordan Pickford’s penalty heroics.
But other than that, Gordon saw another one-on-one missed, whilst Bruno Guimaraes also fired a fine left-footed chance way over.
Dyche will be really pleased with the result, but the performance was far from where he would want it to be with so much of the season left to play.
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