Sean Dyche has said he finds it peculiar and alarming that Everton have not been awarded a single penalty this season given how other clubs have won them for “tiny touches”.
Everton are the only Premier League club not to have been awarded a spot-kick during the current campaign, while they have conceded the joint highest total – five, along with Brighton, Fulham, Tottenham and Wolves. Everton have had only one penalty in their last 73 matches.
Dyche is adamant his team should have had a penalty in the FA Cup third-round goalless draw at Crystal Palace, when Beto was held by Joachim Andersen in the dying minutes, and for a shirt pull on Amadou Onana by Dejan Kulusevski in the 2-1 defeat at Tottenham. Kulusevski conceded a spot-kick for a similar offence on Danny Welbeck in Spurs’ loss at Brighton five days later.
“If you get to this stage of a season and you’ve not had a penalty, that’s peculiar,” said the Everton manager. “Some that went against us can be debated. The one on Onana at Tottenham almost got brushed away like it was nothing. If you are going to start freeze-framing everything, you can freeze-frame that and see it’s a penalty.
“It is quite alarming when you see how many penalties are given for tiny touches which we can’t work out sometimes. Some people see it as the ‘modern game’ but I find it alarming how many penalties are given for almost nothing. You have grown men who are incredibly agile, super balanced, fit and strong and yet seemingly a touch on the foot and they go down. If you were walking down the street you wouldn’t do it. That said, if that is the rule across the board then it goes against the stats that we haven’t had a penalty. We will have to see if it balances up in the second half of the season.”
Onana is one of several Everton players linked with a January exit, along with Arnaut Danjuma, Jarrad Branthwaite and Ben Godfrey, but Dyche insists he has no plans to weaken the squad. “There will be no one at this stage that we are thinking of letting go,” he said. “That’s recognised first-team players, let me be clear, some of the kids are different with loans. With shifting sands in the market you never know but it’s all under our control and at this stage we want everyone in the house.”
Everton should discover on Monday whether the Premier League intends to charge them with another breach of its profit and sustainability rules. The club is appealing against the 10-point deduction for a £19.5m overspend in 2021-22, the outcome of which may affect the assessment of its accounts for the three-year period up to 2023. Dyche said he has received no indication from the club of what Monday’s decision may be. “Documents have been put in but they won’t come to me until the decision is made and the news is out there,” he said.
