David Moyes makes honest Elland Road crowd claim after Everton's loss to Leeds United
Everton suffered a 1-0 loss against Leeds United in their first game of the 2025-26 Premier League season.
David Moyes reckons the Elland Road crowd played a part in the controversial penalty Everton conceded in their loss to Leeds United.
The Toffees suffered a 1-0 defeat by the newly-promoted Whites in their opening game of the 2025-26 Premier League season. In truth, the game was lacklustre throughout and a share of the spoils would have been fair.
But in the 82nd minute, Leeds were given a gilt-edged chance to earn victory when James Tarkowski conceded a penalty. The Everton captain was adjudged to have handballed Anton Stach’s shot despite his arm being by his side. VAR looked at the incident but stuck with on-field referee Chris Kavanagh’s decision and Lukas Nmecha stepped up to score the penalty.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Moyes was left baffled as to where else Tarkowski could have put his arm. The Everton manager said: “You’re allowed to lean in football. It took a deflection the ball, Tarki would have had to get his arm chopped off, it wasn’t as if it was outside his body, he’s not done anything different. It’s not been a good week for me, I’ve only seen the referees in some performances but tonight, that was a poor decision.
“You think VAR had a chance to get that decision was right and fair and I felt it wasn’t fair. Look, the crowd were probably were the ones who were a bit intimidating. I can’t see them intimidating the VAR people but I thought the crowd were very good tonight at Leeds United, they were fighting for everything. We can’t do anything about it now but it was a poor decision.”