Everton's start to the Premier League season couldn't have gone much worse yesterday as they suffered a 3-0 defeat at home to Brighton.
The Toffees have had a rough go at it over the past few seasons but after a promising summer which saw the signings of Jake O'Brien, Illiman Ndiaye and Jesper Lidstrøm, many fans were hopeful that their fortunes would change.
However Brighton took the lead early through Kaoru Mitoma and they didn't look back, doubling it early in the second half through Danny Welbeck before a late goal from Simon Adingra sealed the win for the Seagulls.
However Everton fans felt hard done by with a decision which came just before Welbeck's goal. Referee Simon Hooper had awarded Everton a penalty just two minutes after half time after he judged Lewis Dunk to have caught Dominic Calvert-Lewin's foot.
The decision was reviewed by VAR and they called Hooper over to the monitor to check the foul.
Hooper overturned his call and disallowed the penalty but fan footage has emerged that appears to show that Hooper never actually looked at the foul on the monitor.
Hooper checking the penalty decision today pitchside, forgetting 15,000 Everton fans in the stands opposite can see he's looking at a screen with nothing on it. pic.twitter.com/zuEH3hYPYH
— Scousericey (@scousericey) August 17, 2024
The footage sparked a lot of outrage online but while speaking on Match Of The Day, former England International Joe Hart revealed that PGMOL had assured them that there was a second monitor in use.
A little bit of confusion here as the see the VAR screen wasn’t playing. But they assured us that there’s a backup screen there for him to see, make the decision, overturned.
Whatever way the refereeing team came to the decision, it was still one that split opinions among pundits with former Everton and Ireland International Kevin Kilbane feeling that there wasn't enough to overturn the call.
It may not have affected the outcome but Does it matter where DCL’s foot landed? He didn’t initiate contact and was impeded. Definitely not a clear ref error imo! https://t.co/Z2vc6Imvrs
— Kevin Kilbane (@kdkilbane77) August 17, 2024
Nonetheless the penalty was overturned and Welbeck scored less than ten minutes later, with Ashley Young receiving a red card not too long after as Everton's afternoon went from bad to worse with Brighton even having a fourth goal ruled out for offside after a VAR review.
It was far from an ideal start for the Toffees and yesterday's result has now made next week's trip to Tottenham even more daunting.
Everton have flirted with relegation over the past few seasons but while they have always seemed to do enough to stay up, more performances like yesterday could see their luck run out.
