Premier League owe Everton an explanation after what happened during Tottenham 1-2 Leicester (opinion)
Yesterday at 12:15 PM
Everton saw relegation rivals Leicester surprisingly secure three points against Tottenham on Sunday.
David Moyes has given the Toffees some breathing space in the Premier League after securing six points from clashes against Tottenham and Brighton since replacing Sean Dyche.
However, Leicester managed to close the gap between themselves and Everton to six points on Sunday with a shock 2-1 win over Tottenham, ignited by an equaliser from Jamie Vardy just 58 seconds into the second half.
As the Leicester No.9 celebrated his seventh Premier League goal of the season, Everton fans were surely left scratching their heads.
Jamie Vardy escapes yellow card despite Iliman Ndiaye booking
In case you missed it, Iliman Ndiaye was bizarrely booked during Saturday’s 1-0 win at Brighton, after opting to celebrate by mimicking a seagull.
The official reason for that yellow card was excessive celebration.
Law 12 in the IFAB Laws of the Game says: “Players can celebrate when a goal is scored, but the celebration must not be excessive; choreographed celebrations are not encouraged and must not cause excessive time wasting.”
We disagree that Ndiaye celebrated excessively in the first place, but if mimicking a seagull is deemed inflammatory towards opposition supporters, quite how Vardy escaped unpunished for his celebration on Sunday is beyond us.
Vardy decided to rub his goal in the nose of Tottenham fans, running straight towards the home support, pointing at the Premier League badge on his arm before holding up one finger, to remind them of the time Leicester beat Spurs to the Premier League title back in 2016.
Make no mistake, we like to see characters such as Vardy express themselves, but if the Premier League are going to book Ndiaye for mimicking a seagull, they owe Everton fans an explanation as to why the Leicester talisman also wasn’t yellow carded.
David Moyes now facing hugely significant clash at Everton
If next Saturday’s Premier League clash against Leicester at Goodison Park wasn’t already hugely significant, it is even more important now after the Foxes defeated Tottenham.
A win for Ruud van Nistelrooy’s men would put Leicester just three points behind Everton – who want Arthur Melo – and while the Toffees still have a game in hand against Liverpool to come, Moyes would ideally like to have more distance between his relegation rivals than that.
