Shamoon Hafez
BBC Sport football news reporter at Anfield

Image source, Getty Images

Even Everton manager David Moyes considered his captain James Tarkowski "lucky" to stay on the pitch.

Explaining the decision, the Premier League Match Centre said on X: "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."

The key word here is "reckless", which according to the laws of the game merits a yellow card rather than a red.

However, Liverpool - and many onlookers - felt Tarkowski's challenge was not just reckless but also was made with excessive force.

According to law 12, as explained on the Football Association's website, "a tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play".

It continues: "Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play."

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During Everton's loss to Liverpool on Wednesday James Tarkowski won the ball but caught Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister just below the knee with his studs in the 11th minute at Anfield.

The Everton centre-back was shown a yellow card and the video assistant referee (VAR) decided to take no further action after a review.

But on Thursday BBC Sport was told by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) the tackle met the threshold for serious foul play and that Tarkowski should have been sent off.

Everton

This is the statement in full:

"Everton Football Club is aware of threats made towards James Tarkowski, and his family on social media. Such behaviour is completely unacceptable and has no place in football or society.

"The Club is liaising with James and his wife Samantha, and stands ready to engage with the social media companies and assist the police with any potential investigation.

"Everton strongly condemns any form of online or offline intimidation, threats or abuse directed at players, staff, or their families."

Right then, about time we move on, don't you think?

Lots to get into with regard to Everton now following the fallout from the Merseyside derby on Wednesday.

Before we get into what manager David Moyes had to say, the club have released a statement this morning condemning abuse aimed at defender James Tarkowski this week.

Tottenham Hotspur

Ange Postecoglou was asked about VAR in his news conference this morning after he said it was 'killing the game' following last night's defeat by Chelsea.

This is the time it took last night for VAR to reach a decision.

Caicedo goal

• 55:25 scored
• 59:08 decision

Total: 3 minutes 45 seconds

Sarr goal

• 68:51 scored
• 71:54 decision

Total: 3 minutes 3 seconds

Total combined: 6 minutes 48 seconds

Tottenham Hotspur

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Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou provides team news before facing Southampton: "Micky [van de Ven] is alright. He cramped up [against Chelsea]. Obviously, he hadn't played 90 minutes for a while, the positive thing is that he felt really good apart from the cramping up. It was a tough game defensively, we had to work hard.

"Everyone else... nothing significant coming out of the game."

On whether he would rotate the squad for Thursday's Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt: "To a certain extent, we are a bit beyond that now. The group is in a good place physically where we don’t have to rotate.

"We need to gain some momentum. We will make a couple of changes but not too many."

Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou on VAR's impact on football: "No doubt. It is not the game. Maybe I was influenced by England and the old First Division. I loved the frenetic pace. I could have watched other divisions but it was always England, end-to-end stuff, speed and tempo, I loved that.

"I’ve tried to design a game plan that has tempo and energy because I feel if you want people in there, you want them off their seat. There was 12 minutes of extra time yesterday that’s not why VAR was brought in.

"I am the lone voice. I don’t hear anyone else saying. That’s why I am sat here and saying maybe I am disconnected. When I retire, I will probably watch less football and find another hobby."

Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou, on whether he is affected by the abuse from the fans: "No, I am fine. I don’t get affected by that. I will continue fighting my whole career.

"People want me to say something that will change the mood of the fans but I have never done that. My job is the performance of the team. I get that they are frustrated and angry. But at the same time, I understand the criticism towards me, but if anyone looked at the players and said they aren’t trying - then I am sorry they are not watching the right game."

Tottenham Hotspur

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Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou was asked about his ear-cup gesture at the Spurs supporters after Pape Matar Sarr's disallowed goal against Chelsea: "I made a mistake last night in that I celebrated a goal. Since VAR came in here, there were four or five incidents in Scotland and I thought I am not really going to celebrate goals.

"I just felt we needed something, cracking goal from Pape [Matar Sarr], I heard the fans weren’t happy and I felt the need to celebrate and it could be a real momentum shift to finish strong. My mistake was celebrating a goal, VAR defeated me, I won’t be doing that again."

Right then, we've finally got some Ange Postecoglou to bring you.

In the least unsurprising news of the day, it kicked off with him being asked about that ear-cup gesture.

Tottenham Hotspur and manager Ange Postecoglou have dominated the day so far but there is plenty more to come as we approach lunchtime.

• We will bring you Everton manager David Moyes' news conference following the fallout to the Merseyside derby.
• There was another big blow to Arsenal's campaign midweek as it was discovered defender Gabriel would miss the remainder of the season through injury. We'll hear from manager Mikel Arteta to dissect the aftermath of that.
• And that leads us on nicely to a new theme coming your way this afternoon. We'll be turning into a dedicated FPL page a little later on and will be joined by FPL expert Gianni Buttice to preview this weekend's action.

It's going to be a good one so make sure you stick with us!

Just joining us? We've been delving into the situation at Tottenham after their 1-0 defeat at Chelsea last night. This is what you've missed...

• The ear-cupping gesture - what went down?
• Spurs heading for worst finish in over 20 years
• How long did VAR take last night?
• Tottenham's record against top half teams
• What has Postecoglou won as a manager?

Image source, Getty Images

Despite all the negativity, Ange Postecoglou does still have a chance to win silverware this season in the Europa League.

It would make his famous second season statement come true.

Among the chaos, here's a list of his achievements to date...

Celtic

• Scottish Premiership (2021/22, 2022/23)
• Scottish Cup (2022/23)
• Scottish League Cup (2021/22, 2022/23)

Yokohama F. Marinos

• J1 League (2019)

Australia

• AFC Asian Cup (2015)

Brisbane Roar

• A-League Championship (2010/11, 2011/12)
• A-League Premiership (2010/11)

South Melbourne

• National Soccer League (1997/98, 1998/99)
• National Soccer League Premiership (1997/98)
• Oceania Club Championship

In the A League and National Soccer League (it's predecessor) the winner of the regular season wins the 'premiership' and the winner of the grand final wins the 'championship'.

Shamelessly thumbs upped myself on the last post, thanks Joe.

Bah humbug to everyone that thumbs downed.

Anyway, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou is expected in front of the media very shortly for his pre-match news conference before Sunday's game against Southampton.

This one could get very interesting.

We'll bring you all the updates as they come in.

Anyway, I think I'm going to take my break now. Ben Ramsdale will take over proceedings.

Give him some thumbs up from me, yeah?

Erm, that's a new one. Top marks for originality though, Josh.

But really we should be promoting BBC shows; so, personally, I'd suggest a Strictly-style scoring or Traitors round table approach.

And if we did stick to BGT, imagine the fallout when a clearly offside goal gets given because it was Golden Buzzared due to vibes.