Gabby Agbonlahor calls for referees to show consistency after Everton v Liverpool
Gabby Agbonlahor has called for referees to show more consistency in their decisions after Ashley Young was sent off and Ibrahima Konate wasn’t in the Everton defeat at Liverpool.
Young was sent off after receiving two yellow cards, with the second a mistimed sliding challenge on Luis Diaz, but Konate was spared a second yellow despite pulling Beto down when the striker would have been away.
The decision by Craig Pawson has left further questions around consistency and decision-making, with plenty of big names speaking out in reaction to the decision.
Speaking live on talkSPORT [21 October, 18:44], Agbonlahor was joined by Jamie O’Hara, when the latter claimed: “Everton may feel a little bit hard done by with the Konate yellow card.”
The former Aston Villa striker then commented: “Yeah, I think after Ashley Young gets two yellows I think Konate should have got the same treatment, he should have been sent off.
“But that’s the consistency we’ve been asking for from referees and we’ve not been getting. But I think Liverpool were the better team even before they [Everton] had ten men.”
Another controversial call
Will we ever get a weekend of Premier League football without a referee making a mistake? Probably not. Everton were on the receiving end on this occasion, and what should have been an easy call to make has turned into yet another refereeing controversy.
Everton were never likely to get the rub of the green at Anfield, especially with the referees now keen to atone for their mistakes in the Liverpool versus Tottenham game, but this decision shouldn’t have been debatable.
Even without the context of Young having already been sent off, Konate should have been dismissed. Pulling a player back when they’re about to break away is, and always has been, a nailed-on yellow card. Unless, apparently, you’re a Liverpool player at Anfield.
Sean Dyche has his squad, as well as anybody else with an Everton persuasion, are right to feel aggrieved by the decision, but it’s no less than we’ve come to expect from Premier League referees lately.
In other Everton news, Andy Gray sends Richard Keys a warning from the Bramley-Moore Dock stadium.