Everton: Dermot Gallagher reacts to Ben Godfrey incident v Manchester City live on Sky Sports
Dermot Gallagher believes referee John Brooks was right not to award Everton defender Ben Godfrey a red card after his challenge on Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson in their 2-0 defeat.
Erling Haaland scored twice to help City see off a determined Toffees side at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday (10 February).
Everton’s organisation and resilience had frustrated the defending champions, who had not managed a shot on target until Haaland struck from a corner on 71 minutes.
City might have felt they should have had the numerical advantage when Godfrey left Ederson in a heap following a challenge soon after half-time.
But former Premier League official Gallager shared live on Sky Sports on Monday (13 February, 11:45 am) that he felt referee Brooks dealt with the incident well and was right not to punish Godfrey because he did not intend to catch his opponent.
He said: “I’m not sure Ben Godfrey goes to kick Ederson. He’s hunting for the ball. The goalkeeper has done particularly well because he hasn’t made a big fuss about it. It’s well dealt with by the referee.”
Nothing in Ben Godfrey challenge in Man City v Everton
When a ball is there to be won like that, if a player feels he can get to it he is well within his right to go for it and Godfrey certainly felt he could win that challenge.
However, because Ederson was left in a heap afterwards, there was plenty of clamour from the Etihad faithful to send Godfrey off for a pretty even challenge between the two.
Gallagher is right, it is not a red and Godfrey does not intentionally hurt the Brazilian star, the ball was there to be won and such is the nature of football when these things happen, a player was unfortunately hurt by it.
Godfrey has stepped up since his re-emergence in the first team for Sean Dyche and was particularly impressive for all of 56 minutes before coming off with an injury from that challenge.
The Englishman had been linked with moves away in the January window but remained at the club, with the Toffees now benefitting from his services at right back and some fans may feel everything went sour against City when Godfrey came off.
It’s a pretty fair argument.
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