Silva calls for VAR, frustrated by refereeing decision

Everton played better than they usually do at the Emirates yesterday, but still came away empty-handed. Arsenal took advantage of an excellent goal by Alexandre Lacazaette and an awfully-offside second from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to win 2-0.

After the game, manager Marco Silva was in no mood for platitudes, especially after what seemed a blatant non-call from assistant referee Harry Lenard who was perfectly positioned to see two Gunners in offside positions.

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“It’s really frustrating. We have in that moment just one player in our box. It’s too clear to the assistant.

“It was a counter-attack, we won the ball and after we lost it too quickly and one pass, and it’s two against one or three against one.

“We have just Jonjoe Kenny inside the box. It’s clear where he is in that moment and it’s clear on the second touch [by Aaron Ramsey] where the player who finishes is, as well. He’s clearly offside.

“For me, it’s a little bit strange but it’s OK. I make mistakes, my players as well. The assistant referees can make them, as well. They’re trying to find the best way to do that in the future, as soon as possible. Maybe next season we’ll have VAR here.

“We were in control of the game in that moment, they scored a great goal but we’ll fight until the end. We’ll try to fight to score the one-one for sure. That moment was really hard for us.”

Not the first time that lady luck (and the referee) has deserted the Blues this season, but for fans looking for some silver linings in yesterday’s loss, Everton certainly deserved to come away with at least a point for their efforts.

“The result is really disappointing and didn’t reflect, in my opinion, what I saw on the pitch. I think we deserved a bit more this afternoon for our players and for our fans as well - they came here to support our players.

“But in these moments and at this level we have to be more effective. In our last game, without a good performance, we created clear, clear chances and more than our opponent to achieve a different result.

“This afternoon, our performance was good and we created chances from the first minute, with Dominic, until the last minute.

“We dominated many moments of the game as well.”