‘Awful human error’ blamed by Premier League boss for costing his aspect win

Leicester boss Steve Cooper insists his side have moved on from the “awful human error” which led to the Foxes surrendering their two-goal lead last week against Crystal Palace.

Cooper’s side took a 2-0 lead early in the second half at Selhurst Park courtesy of Stephy Mavididi but Jean-Philippe Mateta’s controversial goal a minute later brought Palace back into the contest before the same player tucked a penalty away late on to secure a point. Mateta turned home early in the second period but after the goal was originally ruled out for offside, VAR overturned the decision despite some angles seemingly showing Mateta in an offside position.

It is understood the reasoning behind the decision was explained to Leicester during a private meeting on Monday. While Leicester argued another ‘kick-point’ should have been chosen which would have made the decision offside, that initial mark is determined by the VAR before the lines are drawn.

Once the lines were placed at that point, consistent with the protocol applied in all Premier League matches, they showed Mateta was indeed onside so the goal was awarded. Cooper, though, still felt his side were hard done by.

“We’re over it now, it was an awful human error,” he said. “We have seen images that show he clearly was offside, but they froze it at the wrong time – everything seen has been a false image.

“We showed the Premier League that they used the wrong image. We had a massive error go against us, errors like that shouldn’t happen and it’s why we’re changing to the semi-automated system. We felt very let down by it. We needed to stand up for the club and tell the Premier League what we thought.”

Leicester’s next game on Saturday sees them come up against Everton, who are also winless from their first four games.

Everton have themselves let slip a two-goal lead in each of their last two defeats – Antoine Semenyo, Lewis Cook and Luis Sinisterra scoring from the 87th minute onwards for Bournemouth before Ollie Watkins’ brace and Jhon Duran’s stunner handed Aston Villa three points. Cooper is not underestimating the threat of Sean Dyche’s side though.

He added: “We’re taking every game as it comes and treating them with equal importance. (Everton) have a lot of very good players and a very experienced manager. We have to focus on what we can bring. We’re excited about the game and being at home.

“It’s been a brilliant training week, I have to say, on the back of a difficult result and a really bad decision we’ve had to pick up with the Premier League.”