James Tarkowski was fortunate not to receive a straight red card in the early stages of Wednesday’s Merseyside derby after the Everton defender lunged in on Alexis Mac Allister.
After the dramatic and chaotic scenes of the first meeting between the teams two months ago, referee Sam Barrott was hoping for a calmer evening at Anfield. But within the first minute it became clear that was unlikely as Tarkowski clashed with Ibrahima Konate in the Everton penalty area after a Liverpool corner.
Soon after, the Everton center-back thundered into Mac Aliister, a tackle that should have resulted in a red card. Tarkowski’s tackle won the ball but the follow through – which looked intentional – caught Mac Allister high on the back of the calf.
The Argentinian received on-field treatment and was thankfully able to continue. As he lay on the Anfield turf, Barrott brandished a yellow card in the direction of Everton’s no.6 – his 63rd in the Premier League, the joint most by a single player in the division without being sent off.
But Arne Slot felt that particular statistic should no longer be correct. He immediately turned to the fourth official and voiced his frustration at just a yellow being awarded, just a day after he promised to try and keep his cool in the derby, unlike last time at Goodison Park.
The decision was checked and cleared by Paul Tierney on VAR, but Gary Neville, on commentary duty, was in agreement with Slot that Tarkowski had got lucky, a view shared by Mike Dean and Paul Merson.
Explaining the decision via it’s Match Center account on X, the Premier League said: “The referee’s call of yellow card for a reckless foul by Tarkowski was checked by the VAR, with contact on the follow through after Tarkowski had played the ball deemed to be reckless.”
It was Tarkowski who scored the late equalizer in February’s reverse fixture. His injury-time strike resulted in a jubilant reaction by the Toffees’ faithful, before the on-field melee that followed after the full-time whistle which saw four red cards handed out by Michael Oliver.
