Frank Lampard left Hill Dickinson Stadium convinced his Coventry side had been beaten by the officials as much as by Everton, after three huge decisions went against the visitors in Friday night's 3-1 Premier League defeat.
The Coventry boss, back at the club he managed for 12 months, watched his side take the lead early in the second half through Yann Gboho, only for Thierno Barry's quickfire double and a late Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall strike to turn the game Everton's way. But Lampard's anger was not about the goals his team conceded. It was about the three calls he believes should have gone Coventry's way long before the scoreline turned.
"I hate to sound like a moaner," Lampard said afterwards. "But when big decisions change games, they absolutely do. It's disappointing. VAR is there for that and it didn't do its job."
The hair pull that started it all
The first flashpoint came in the 37th minute. James Tarkowski rose to defend a free kick into the Everton box and, in the same challenge, caught Ethan Pinnock with an elbow and appeared to pull the hair of Caleb Yirenkyi. The Coventry midfielder went down, the appeals went up, and referee Stuart Attwell waved play on. VAR checked the incident and cleared it.
Lampard could not believe it. "The first-half decision on Tarkowski got checked. And seeing it back, he pulls on Caleb's hair while competing with Ethan," he told Sky Sports. "I thought the rules were clear. I know they've changed the rules so it's no red card, I get that too. But he's pulling on his hair and [Yirenkyi] can't get his momentum to jump. I think it's a foul and a penalty and they decided no."
The rules on hair pulling were relaxed this season. A red card is now issued only when there is a clear and deliberate action to pull an opponent's hair with excessive force or brutality. Lampard accepts that part — he said himself it was not a red card. His argument is simpler: if the officials accept it was a hair pull, then it was still a foul, and a foul inside the box is a penalty.
"They're saying it's not enough of a pull and I think it's a hard area to be in. What is a hair pull? You've decided it is but it's not enough," he said. "If the rule remains that it's a foul, so I felt it was a foul."
Jamie Redknapp, on punditry duty for Sky Sports, agreed with the Coventry boss. "Yirenkyi goes up, Tarkowski gets hold of his hair. He yanks it down. Is it excessive force? Probably not, but he pulls his hair, stopping any elevation. It's a definite penalty for me. It's a foul. It's not a red card anymore but it's definitely a foul."
Two more calls go against Coventry
Lampard's list did not end there. His second grievance came when Vitalii Mykolenko challenged Taiwo Awoniyi on the edge of the Everton box, with the striker sent tumbling as the pair chased a loose ball. VAR ruled the contact was marginally outside the area. Lampard disagreed.
"Taiwo, for me, on the line of the box is a penalty. You have to give the foul in real time but the ref let it go," he said. "Myko's knee is in the back of Taiwo's knee."
Then came the third, and the one that hurt most because it decided the game. Barry's second goal, the one that put Everton 2-1 ahead in the 61st minute, was checked by VAR Timothy Wood for handball — and allowed to stand.
"The Barry one is handball. I've heard they are saying it didn't touch his hand but I've seen an angle where he has flicked it in with the final touch," Lampard said. "The last touch to score is off the hand, in my opinion. I've seen a conclusive angle so I can disagree."
"Nothing went for us. If there are three decisions that are that big and one or two don't go our way, then they clearly change the game."
Moyes disagrees — but even he hates the rule
David Moyes, whose side climbed to fifth with Everton's 3-1 win over Coventry, rejected the handball claim outright. "It certainly doesn't hit his hand," the Everton boss said.
But on the hair pull, even the winning manager was uneasy. "The hair-pull rule has changed, so it would be a booking if it was, but I still think it's ridiculous that rule is in the game," Moyes said. "I'm bothered because we want it [the result] to be right. But we've had a few decisions recently where we don't think have gone our way. Sometimes they go for you, sometimes they don't. If they were going against me, I'd be complaining a bit more."
Moyes had happier business to discuss too. The win was his 592nd match in charge of Everton, equalling the tally of title-winning manager Harry Catterick, and Barry's brace took the striker's tally further after a slow start to life on Merseyside. "Fabulous," Moyes said of Barry. "I just mentioned in there [the dressing room] that Haaland is worried about catching him now!"
The game had been goalless at half-time, with Coventry frustrating the hosts before Gboho's breakthrough early in the second half.
So what
For Everton, this was a third consecutive win and a climb into the top five, with 16 points from 10 games — a start nobody at Hill Dickinson Stadium would have dared to dream of in August. The table says they are a European contender. The performance, by Moyes' own admission, did not reach the heights of recent weeks, but winning ugly while not at your best is what top-five teams do.
For Coventry, the defeat leaves them 16th on nine points, two above the relegation zone, with three defeats in their last four. The underlying numbers are not disastrous — they led at Everton, they created problems, they were in the game until late — but the points are not following. Lampard's fury is understandable, and on at least the hair pull he has the pundits on his side, but a manager can only spend so much capital on refereeing rows before the conversation turns to results.
The wider question is the rule itself. The Premier League relaxed the hair-pull law this summer to stop soft red cards, and in doing so created a grey area nobody seems able to police: a pull that is a pull but "not enough of a pull". Tarkowski escaped punishment entirely on Friday. Until the league clarifies what counts, every manager on the wrong end of one will be asking the same question Lampard asked — if it is a hair pull, why is it not a foul?
Beyond the Final Whistle: Lampard has a point on the hair pull, and the fact that even Moyes called the rule ridiculous tells you this is not sour grapes. A foul is a foul, and VAR waving it away because the pull was not violent enough is a nonsense distinction that will keep producing nights like this. Coventry were not robbed of a win — Everton's second-half quality was real — but they were robbed of a fair crack at one, and the Premier League needs to fix this rule before it decides a bigger game than this one.
What do you think — was Tarkowski's hair pull on Yirenkyi a penalty, or did the officials get it right? Let us know in the comments. As Reuters reported, Lampard's verdict was blunt: VAR "didn't do its job".
