AdminEverton arguably deserved a penalty before Callum Wilson stole all three points, after Mateus Fernandes swatted the ball away from Thierno Barry inside the box.
The Everton No.11 was backing into the Portugal international while holding up the ball, only for the West Ham No.18 to knock it out of play for a corner with his hand.
Bizarrely – despite a VAR check – West Ham escaped unpunished to the disbelief of David Moyes.
Can someone tell me why this wasn’t a penalty? 😤
The Premier League Match Centre have now released a statement on the matter, explaining why Fernandes – who Everton want to sign – was not penalised.
Premier League say Mateus Fernandes “accidentally” handled the ball
The official Premier League account issued a statement on X (previously known as Twitter) shortly after the incident which read: “The referee’s call of no penalty was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that Fernandes accidentally handled the ball while grappling with an opponent.”
#WHUEVE – 84’
The referee’s call of no penalty was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that Fernandes accidentally handled the ball while grappling with an opponent.
— Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) April 25, 2026
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How does that make any sense?
We presume very few players actually choose to handle the ball when penalised for a handball offence. They are almost always on an accidental basis, so the fact Fernandes has been forgiven on the account that he did not mean to touch the ball makes absolutely no sense to us whatsoever.
To make matters worse, West Ham went up the other end and stole all three points, so Moyes will surely be absolutely livid about that call.
The Glaswegian was already upset with the officials after Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was denied a penalty in the Merseyside derby following a nudge from Curtis Jones.
Both of these 2-1 defeats to Liverpool and West Ham now make qualification for Europe a very difficult task for Everton to accomplish.
Who was Everton’s worst player in the defeat against West Ham? 🫣
However – on the basis of that ridiculous statement – the Toffees should just consider picking the ball up and throwing it into the net across the final four games, which seems to be allowed so long as they tell the officials it was an accident.
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