Mike Dean reacts to Everton incident v Wolves live on Sky Sports
Mike Dean has weighed in on the incident that led to Abdoulaye Doucoure having a goal ruled out for Everton against Wolves on Saturday (26 August).
Speaking as a guest on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday Show on 26 August (04:37 pm), the former Premier League referee admitted the 30-year-old midfielder’s second-half strike in the 1-0 defeat to the Midlands club was a “very tight” offside decision.
The Mali international was played through on goal by new signing Youssef Chermiti before curling an effort past Jose Sa in the 79th minute, but Deane said it was a “good call” to chalk the goal off after the decision was reviewed by VAR.
While the decision was being reviewed, he said: “I think it’s just offside. Maybe his knee might be fractionally offside on the still. It’s a very tight call, this could go either way. They go from the shirt line on the shoulder, where the player can’t score from and it looks like the attacker’s knee.”
After the goal was eventually ruled out, Deane added: “It’s a good decision by the assistant referee in the first place to give the on-field decision – it was a good call.”
No luck
It’s pretty clear that Everton are having no luck at the moment after suffering their third straight defeat at the start of the Premier League season.
Although the campaign has only just got underway, there have been suggestions already that it was a must-win for the Toffees and they will be extremely disappointed to have come away on the wrong side of a narrow loss again at Goodison Park.
There is no arguing with the decision to rule out Doucoure’s goal, but these fine margins just aren’t going in Sean Dyche’s side’s favour when they really need something to go their way.
On top of the result, one of the most worrying things will be that it’s another game that has gone by without the Blues finding the back of the net, having yet to score a single goal this season.
It’s going to be another tough defeat to pick themselves up from, but the manager and the players have to somehow find a way to get themselves going to put some points on the board.
In other Everton news, a pundit has been involved in an on-air debate with a fan after a bizarre Toffees relegation claim was made.