‘Refs have had a poor weekend’: Moyes hits out after Leeds’ penalty winner

David Moyes has questioned the standard of Premier League officiating on the opening weekend of the new season after his side were at the centre of a controversial decision in their defeat against Leeds on Monday.

Everton were beaten 1-0 at Elland Road courtesy of a late penalty from debutant Lukas Nmecha, after James Tarkowski had been adjudged to have handled inside the Everton penalty area. However, Moyes said he was disappointed not just with that decision, but with the overall standard across the first round of fixtures.

“I’m obviously going to say it’s not a penalty and I believe it’s not a penalty,” he said of the winning goal. “I’ve been to see the referee. The referee sort of took nothing to do with it, he thought it was to do with VAR, the decision they’ve made. I don’t know what else I can say.”

But Moyes did not stop there in his criticism. “I actually think the referees have had a poor weekend in the opening weekend,” he said. “I think there have been a lot of [poor] decisions and tonight’s is another one. The rules are supposed to be that if you keep your hands down to your side and if anything he’s tried to get it behind his back as well.

“The ball takes a deflection on the flight as well. You’re allowed to block it and he’s leaned towards the ball, we accept that. We saw one on Friday night [in Liverpool v Bournemouth] that wasn’t given, which looked far clearer a handball than what it was tonight.”

Moyes admitted Everton did not deserve anything from the game at Elland Road and said they will have to be patient with new signing Jack Grealish, who appeared only for the final 19 minutes on Monday evening.

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“Jack’s trained really well,” he said. “I just want to bring him in at the right time rather than the expectations be too high, too quickly for him. I think he’s very rarely played two games in a row. He’s very rarely played three games in a row, so if you look into his history we need to bring him on at the right times.”

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