2 weeks Ago By Dan Godfrey
Everton and Liverpool both have their reasons to rage with the officials after the Merseyside derby at Anfield.The narrow 1-0 defeat for Everton on Tuesday night (2 April) was their first league defeat in 10 under David Moyes, and was notable for two key refereeing incidents.The first came when James Tarkowski was adjudged to have only committed a yellow-card offence after a reckless challenge on Alexis Mac Allister, before Luis Diaz was adjudged not to have been involved in play from an offside position before Diogo Jota tucked away Liverpool’s winner.
Tarkowski has had several impacts on the Merseyside derby this season (Credit: Imago)Richards claims Tarkowski ‘meant to hurt’ Mac AllisterTarkowski’s strong challenge at Liverpool had many up in arms as to how neither the referee Sam Barrott nor his VAR team were able to conclude brandishing a red card.Micah Richards, speaking on The Rest is Football podcast alongside Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer (3 April, 3m), knows the Everton defender on a personal level and explained he has had several text conversations with him after previous incidents with which he has got away with just a yellow.Tarkowski, 32, has the Premier League’s joint-highest number of yellow cards (63) without ever being sent off.
Richards claimed while Tarkowski certainly did not mean to inflict any serious harm on Mac Allister with his tackle, he did mean to “hurt” the Argentine under the premise of “letting him know”.“[Tarkowski] has text me before previous incidents, not this one. I get some work done by a physio who now works at Everton and used to work at Manchester City,” he said.
“Tarky always says to him ‘why’s Micah so harsh on me?’, as I’ve said he should’ve been sent off a couple of times before. But surely, surely that’s a red card. It was a definite red card.
“He had so much time just to nick the ball there, but he’s meant to hurt him. Not break his leg or anything like that, but he’s meant to let him know he was there.”Moyes takes on his former player Mikel Arteta on Saturday back at Goodison (Credit: Imago)Everton continue tough run with Arsenal clashTarkowski did get away with one, everyone has admitted as much, regardless of his having won the ball with the initial contact.
As a result, Moyes will be blessed with his settled backline once again as Mikel Arteta returns to Goodison Park for the final time as Arsenal manager (5 April).Despite defeat at Anfield, Everton gave a solid account of themselves in this season’s final derby and will be relatively confident they can keep Arsenal at arms’ length.POSPremier League 2024-25PLDPTSGD14Tottenham Hotspur3034+1115EVERTON3034-516Wolves3034-1717West Ham United3029-1718Ipswich Town3020-33(As of 4 April)Perhaps they can even breach the Gunners, who have lost Gabriel for the rest of the season after his hamstring injury against Fulham in midweek; however, Bukayo Saka announced his return in style after scoring what turned out to be the decisive goal at the Emirates.
Tarkowski will be available, and is likely to have Mikel Merino to deal with as a stand-in centre-forward for Arsenal, who remain without Kai Havertz.The post Micah Richards shares Tarkowski text exchange after Everton remark on MOTD appeared first on Goodison News..
