Everton

Everton manager David Moyes has spoken out about the death threats made towards James Tarkowski and his family, stating abuse is "not acceptable for anybody in any walk of life".

The centre-back was involved in a controversial tackle in Wednesday's Merseyside derby against Liverpool, which Moyes concedescould have resulted in his player being shown a red card.

Speaking in his pre-match conference, he added: "We have to hold our hands up and say that after looking at it again, I believe that it could have been a sending off.

"But I don't think it should mean that you get abused online because of that. It is part of football.

"At the time, I thought he made what I thought was a really good tackle. Looking at it again, I think it was a bit reckless."

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Earlier, we asked which player has appeared in the most Premier League wins for Everton.

The answer is Leon Osman, who was involved in 156 victories.

Nat Hayward
BBC Sport journalist

Everton boss David Moyes has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game at home against Arsenal (12:30 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Moyes confirmed Iliman Ndiaye is "in the frame" to start after returning from injury off the bench against Liverpool on Wednesday but is "lacking proper match fitness".

• On Dwight McNeil, who has been absent since December with a knee injury: "Dwight is back in training - he's had about three or four days on the grass. He's getting closer and if we can get him involved we will do."

• Jesper Lindstrom is not available and will be seeing a specialist about a groin problem. Moyes said medical staff are "half looking to see if it's a hernia".

• When asked if Armando Broja and Youssef Chermiti were pushing to start, Moyes said: "Yeah they are knocking at the door. It's great news that we're talking about us getting chances to score. Beto was a little bit unlucky the other night. You look at the points we've got and quite a lot are to do with his goals. We've just missed that last bit but certainly Broja and Chermiti are getting closer to match fitness than they have been."

• Moyes commented on the club statement condemning social media abuse aimed at James Tarkowski: "It's not acceptable for anybody, in any walk of life. I believe it could have been a sending off but that doesn't mean you should be abused online."

• On the decision to allow Diogo Jota's goal on Wednesday: "You can always hide behind words. Anybody who's followed football would see that as offside. I find it really incredible. We're about to go into the semi-automated - it would be interesting to see what they would do about the decision."

• On the final four games at Goodison Park: "It feels as if we're getting to the end of a long season. For everybody who follows Everton, there's not many days left at Goodison. People will be pretty sad it's going but really excited about the prospect of moving to a new stadium."

• On Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, who played under Moyes at Everton: "I'm thrilled for Mikel because he is one of our ex-players. Mikel has done unbelievably well. He's worked under arguably the best manager in the world since Sir Alex [Ferguson] in Pep [Guardiola]. Culturally, he's from Spain but he's played most of his football here, so he's got a really good balance."

Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

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After winning four out of five league games against Arsenal between December 2020 and February 2023, Everton are now without a win in their past four league meetings with the Gunners (drawn one, lost three).

Arsenal have won just three of their past 26 away games on Merseyside against Everton and Liverpool (drawn 10, lost 13) in all competitions. They had won six of their previous seven visits before this run.

Martin Odegaard has been involved in five goals in his past seven Premier League appearances against Everton (three goals, two assists), although only one of these goals was scored at Goodison Park.

Which player has appeared in the most Premier League wins for Everton?

Come back to this page at 17:00 BST for the answer

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How objective can fans be when analysing decision for and against their team?

Wednesday's Merseyside derby offered up two controversial moments: the decision not to send off James Tarkowski for a reckless tackle on Alexis Mac Allister and allowing Diogo Jota's winning goal despite Luis Diaz being in an offside position during the build-up.

We put mirror polls up on both our Liverpool and Everton pages to gauge the thoughts of each fanbases on the two decisions.

Here is what the results told us:

As we put our polls out, refereeing body PGMOL were acknowledging an error was made in not dismissing Tarkowski.

Of the people who voted, five per cent of Liverpool fans and 32 per cent of Everton fans still voted that the referee made the right decision to issue a yellow card.

The split in views between the two fan bases is more apparent in the vote on whether Jota's winner should have stood.

By the letter of the law - probably.

Is there an issue with said law? Quite possibly.

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Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford praised the "fight and character" of the team in their Merseyside derby defeat by Liverpool.

He told BBC Radio Merseyside: "It's never nice to get beat but I think the fight and the character from all of us was great.

"We didn't give in - we fought all the way and one goal in it against the league leaders. They've only lost one game all season so it was a good game and I think we created a few chances, probably could have created more.

"But I think our resilience as a team was good and we need to build on that because we've got a tough few games - that's what the Premier League is all about - playing the best teams."

He added: "I think we've always had that resilience, that grit and determination to keep the ball out of the net and not just from the back four and myself. It's the full team putting a shift in.

"It's how do we improve that 10 per cent, quality with the ball, how do we create more chances? We become an even better team - keep pushing and getting better as a unit."

Listen to the interview in full

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We asked for your views on Liverpool's Premier League win over against Everton.

Here are some of your comments:

Liverpool fans

Tommy: Hard-won game with Everton parking the bus and time-wasting. Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah's form has dropped dramatically and both were carried throughout the match while Andy Robertson and Ibou Konate were best at the back. Luis Diaz was like a wasp at a picnic and Dominik Szoboszlai never stopped running. We do need to play better though.

Tyra: Not a great performance but we'll take the three points. If one of our players did what James Tarkowski did, it would have been a straight red immediately without any need for VAR. Ridiculous.

Ken: It was never going to be easy against this Everton team and their tactics so it feels even more satisfying to come out on top after a war of attrition. The team was the star here in battling for every ball. That said, the standard of officiating on the pitch and in the VAR booth was woeful again.

Tim: On the whole we deserved the win but I was concerned how easy our centre-backs were beaten by Beto. Poor defending by both at times and they are world class . And what has happened to Salah? It was like playing with 10 men. That said three hard-fought points and we move on.

Yusuf: Great way to bounce back from a difficult period and no better opponent than our enemies across Stanley Park. Diaz gave 100% throughout and it was a well-taken goal from Jota. And please cut Salah some slack - he has been quiet recently but that is just natural - he's not going to score or assist every game. Just need to keep the machine going for another eight games.

Everton fans

Lee: A decent hard-working performance, and definitely a red card! But the game was won by a goalscorer, which sadly is something we lack! Tough run of games to play but it's in our own hands to stay up.

Mozza: Decent performance but was expecting more. Doucoure and Harrison were a complete waste of time and should not get on the pitch again this season. We should play Broja or Chermiti instead of Beto if they are going to be the future.

Jeff: We could - and might even should - have been ahead with Beto's chance. That's the crucial moment in the match for me. Not the two VAR decicions. But on those matters: Tarkowski was lucky to get away with a yellow and he defended clumsily for their goal. Instead of critising the VAR for a possible offside, we should rather be critical at Tarkowski. He has become a liability this season.

Barry: The right result. We didn't create too much and the massive difference of Liverpool's spend on their squad compared to ours ultimately showed through. Might have been different if Beto had scored rather than hitting the post, but the gulf in class will need to be closed if we hope to get anywhere near European spots, starting with a major overhaul this summer.

Alan: Not the best performance from Everton but considering the injuries list it wasn't bad. I'll take a 1-0 defeat at Anfield by the champions elect. But we must invest in the summer.

• Support a different club? Find and follow your team here

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When Ryan Gravenberch played a ball forward, Luis Diaz was standing in an offside position behind the final Everton defender - albeit he made no movement toward the ball.

Liverpool then recycled the play and Diaz's cute backheel was finished off by Diogo Jota for what turned out to be the winner.

Everton centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite was convinced it should have been flagged offside, immediately putting his arms in the air and baying for a free-kick to no avail.

Branthwaite told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I have seen the goal back and it is offside. As a defender, if the player is behind then you are going to try and stop the ball. You are not going to let it run through you.

"I said to the referee: 'Are you looking at that incident there?' He said they were. So if they were and then they gave it, I don't really understand.

"It is one of them. He didn't give offside, it's a bit disappointing but we can't do anything about it now."

Listen to the fallout on BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast

Shamoon Hafez
BBC Sport football news reporter

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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."

More on the talking points over here

Highlights and analysis from nine midweek Premier League fixtures.

If you missed Match of the Day, you can catch up now on BBC iPlayer.

Listen back to full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Arsenal 2-1 Fulham

• Nottingham Forest 1-0 Man Utd

• Liverpool 1-0 Everton

• Newcastle 2-1 Brentford

This summer, Everton could sign Liverpool's 19-year-old Scotland midfielder Ben Doak, currently on loan at Middlesbrough, in a £30m deal. (Football Insider), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Thursday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

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Everton boss David Moyes, speaking to Sky Sports: "I think we are a lot closer to them tonight than possibly when I came to the club than what I expected.

"Over the two games we have given them a good game. Tonight was really tight. An offside goal which they get and that's the difference in the game tonight."

On thinking Diogo Jota's goal should not stand: "The players behind Jarrad [Branthwaite] interfere with him clearing it. It is an easy decision to give. I cannot understand any reason why that wasn't given offside."

On James Tarkowski VAR decision: "First thought, it was a brilliant tackle for a derby game. A tackle we would have seen a few years ago.

"I understand nowadays things are slightly different with follow-throughs. We might have got a bit lucky, don't put that with the goal because the goal was a different incident that won Liverpool the game."

On the game overall: "Liverpool were the better team and that's why they're top of the league, but we showed great resilience and we stuck at it.

"A bit gut-wrenching when you feel the end result has come from something which wasn't deserved.

"We have been on a great run, the players have been doing brilliantly well. First defeat in 10 games.

"I thought we tried to close that gap from their levels to our levels tonight. At the moment they're the best team in the league.

"Tonight, we have done a lot of things not as well as we should have done."

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Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, speaking to Sky Sports on the James Tarkowski VAR decision: "You've seen at the end he apologised, it's probably a bit of a high foot but he's done what he's done and he's apologised after the game.

"The VAR says it's not a red card so that's the decision. It's a game of football as well."

On Diogo Jota goal: "In the moment I can't see what's happening, but Jarrad [Branthwaite] said it was a stonewall offside straight away. But I'm not a referee and I wouldn't want to be. It's a big debate and we'll see what the referees come out and say.

"As a team we thought it was offside but that's football. We're disappointed with that decision but it can't be perfect always."

Image source, Getty Images

Everton's James Tarkowski, who was booked against Liverpool, has the joint most yellow cards without ever being sent off in Premier League history (63).

He also made his 300th Premier League appearance – since his debut in August 2016, the only outfield player with more games is Tottenham's Son Heung-Min (301).