Dermot Gallagher believes Dan Burn was 'clever' as he says whether Everton deserved a penalty

The classic VAR debate reared its ugly head again at the weekend as the game between Everton and Newcastle United threw up two penalty decision for VAR to ponder.

The first incident saw Newcastle awarded a penalty after replays showed Everton defender James Tarkowski throw Sandro Tonali to the ground in the penalty area as Jacob Murphy was lining up a shot from outside the box.

VAR took a long time to look at it before asking referee Craig Pawson to review the incident on screen. There was no question that it was a foul, but given where the ball was at the time the debate was whether or not it made any difference to the passage of play.

Eventually it was deemed as a penalty which Anthony Gordon stepped up to take and failed to convert.

Dermot Gallagher has said whether or not he believes it was a penalty

Later in the game Everton felt they should have had a spot kick after Dominic Calvert-Lewin tangled with Dan Burn in the area. It was ultimately deemed that Calvert-Lewin had kicked into Dan Burn rather than Burn impeding DCL - something which obviously hasn't gone over well with the Goodison Park contingent.

Naturally the incident featured on Sky Sports News' Ref Watch segment on Monday morning with former Premier League Dermot Gallagher weighing in with his thoughts.

"I think Dan Burn has been clever and he's put his foot across to protect the ball, and Dominic's actually kicked him in the back of the leg rather than the other way round, and that's why it's not given."

Unlucky, Toffees, maybe next time

There have been countless times that the same decision has been reached for similar incidents, so it's not like Everton have too much to cling to here, but given that their current mindset is that the Premier League is against them, when decision like this don't go their way, it's only natural that they're going to feel hard done by.

Obviously from our point of view it was absolutely the correct decision and now that has been backed up by Dermot Gallagher too.

Better luck next time.