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• Referees have to help themselves – Forest’s Steve Cooper frustrated by decisions

  Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper felt it was another bad day for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited after some controversial decisions in his side’s 1-1 draw with Brentford.

  The PGMOL were forced to stand intended fourth official Darren England down at the City Ground after his mistake on Saturday night when, as VAR in Tottenham’s game against Liverpool, he failed to act properly in overturning the decision to rule out Luis Diaz’s goal for offside.

  And both managers were left complaining after the draw as Nicolas Dominguez’s header cancelled out Christian Norgaard’s opener, which came immediately after Moussa Niakhate was sent off.

  That is the decision that irked Cooper the most, the boss insisting that his defender’s tackle, where he raked his studs down Yoane Wissa’s calf, was accidental.

  Cooper said: “Honestly, if he doesn’t give him a second yellow, nobody mentions it. All of your colleagues on TV and radio have said the same.

  “With it being the only Premier League game of the day, the PGMOL needed a real clean day and unfortunately they have got the opposite. We want to help referees, we will moan and complain as much as anyone else, it is just the nature of it.

  “We’ll try and do it respectfully, but sometimes it’s hard. They have got to help themselves. I’m annoyed with the first yellow, he shouldn’t have lunged in. The second yellow would not even have been mentioned…of course it was accidental.

  “You need football understanding to see that. It’s a contact game.

  “Some have gone for us, so I’m not sitting here saying we’re hard done by. We all want refereeing to be at the right level and we all want to help them and they have to help themselves. The last thing they needed today was talking points about decision-making, but that’s what they’ve got.

  “Come on, let’s work together and we will help. Some things have gone in our favour, not as much as have gone against us. This league is amazing and every part of it needs to be at that level.”

  Brentford boss Thomas Frank says he is “tired” of talking about VAR after he thought his side were denied a clear penalty.

  Frank believes Wissa was fouled by Matt Turner early in the second half when he closed down the Forest goalkeeper and was caught by Turner’s follow through, while Brentford also had two penalty appeals turned down.

  Referee Paul Tierney did not give anything and the incident was not even checked by VAR Michael Oliver.

  “I am tired of talking about it, I understand you guys need to ask the question,” he said.

  “I just want to talk about performances.

  “I think the two handball situations, some managers would claim them as penalty, I won’t. I think I would really hate that if they were given against my team.

  “But the Wissa one is a clear penalty, you can’t go through the man, that is an unfortunate mistake from VAR, especially when that is clear and obvious.

  “Unfortunately our players are too honest, we need to be a little bit more nasty, I would never say that to the players, I like honest players.”

• Liverpool beat Arsenal in front of record WSL crowd as Man Utd grab late winner

  Liverpool pulled off a shock 1-0 win at Arsenal in front of a record Women’s Super League crowd.

  There were 54,115 fans at the Emirates Stadium for the season opener, which was settled by a goal from Miri Taylor early in the second half.

  Taylor slotted in a cross from Missy Bo Kearns in the 48th minute to stun the Gunners home support.

  The Reds held off plenty of Arsenal pressure but Jonas Eidevall’s side, who were knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers last month, could not find a way back into the match.

  Manchester United came from behind to beat Aston Villa 2-1 with a stoppage-time goal from substitute Rachel Williams at Villa Park, where the hosts saw Kirsty Hanson sent off.

  Scotland winger Hanson was shown a straight red card in the 74th minute for her high tackle on United midfielder Hayley Ladd.

  Villa, though, soon took the lead through England international Rachel Daly, only for Lucia Garcia to quickly have United back on level terms.

  Just when it seemed both teams would have to settle for a point, Williams headed in Nikita Parris’ deflected cross to secure United a dramatic victory.

  Leicester came from behind to beat newly-promoted Bristol City 4-2 at Ashton Gate.

  The Robins, back in the top flight after an absence of two seasons, went ahead through a fine strike from Carrie Jones in the 33rd minute.

  New Leicester signing Aimee Palmer, playing against her former club, fired the visitors level in added time at the end of the first half.

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  Leicester took control after the break, as Shannon O’Brien put them in front and German striker Lena Petermann, making her debut, headed a third in the 52nd minute.

  Fellow debutant Jutta Rantala increased Leicester’s lead with seven minutes left before Amalie Thestrup scored her first Robins goal from the penalty spot.

  Elisabeth Terland scored twice in the first half as Brighton opened their WSL campaign with a 2-0 win at Everton.

  Norway forward Terland headed in after the ball came back off the crossbar to give the visitors a third-minute lead and soon added a second after being played in by Katie Robinson.

  Everton captain Megan Finnigan reduced the deficit just after the hour, but the home side were unable to conjure an equaliser.

  Manchester City won 2-0 at West Ham as Jill Roord scored on her debut.

  Lauren Hemp broke the deadlock early in the second half with a curling effort before Chloe Kelly then saw her penalty saved.

  Netherlands international Roord, a club-record summer signing from Wolfsburg, slotted in to open her City account in the 55th minute.

  City finished a player down after Leila Ouahabi was shown a straight red card for kicking out at Emma Harries, but the Hammers could not get themselves back into the game.

• Nicolas Dominguez earns point for 10-man Nottingham Forest against Brentford

  Nicolas Dominguez scored his first goal for 10-man Nottingham Forest as they held on for a 1-1 draw against Brentford at the City Ground.

  Things looked bleak for Forest as they went down to 10 men just before the hour when Moussa Niakhate picked up a second yellow card, and immediately conceded to Christian Norgaard from the resulting free-kick.

  But they rallied and Argentina international Dominguez levelled soon after with a looping header that Bees goalkeeper Mark Flekken appeared to misjudge.

  Forest were able to see out the remaining 35 minutes with relative comfort to maintain their unbeaten start to the season on home soil.

  The draw means Brentford have now gone five games without a win as their tricky start to the campaign continues.

  There was a change to the match officials’ line-up after Darren England was dropped as fourth official following his mistake on Saturday night when, as VAR in Tottenham’s game against Liverpool, he failed to act properly in overturning the decision to rule out Luis Diaz’s goal for offside.

  Craig Pawson was drafted in on the touchline and his colleagues in Stockley Park had an early test as Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi converted from close range after Willy Boly’s header from a corner.

  He was immediately ruled offside but it was closer than it initially looked, with VAR Michael Oliver this time consulting the horizontal lines to confirm the decision.

  The game could have done with that early goal standing as a drab first half followed, with nothing of interest happening until added time when a short free-kick routine saw Norgaard advance into the box but his deflected shot was palmed away by Matt Turner.

  The second half immediately brought more entertainment as Brentford were close to taking the lead when Yoane Wissa closed down Turner and the ball trickled towards the net but Boly cleared.

  Forest endured a chastening couple of minutes just before the hour that led to the Bees taking the lead.

  Niakhate fouled Wissa, raking his studs up the back of his opponent’s leg, with referee Paul Tierney brandishing a second yellow card.

  And from the resulting free-kick Norgaard got goalside and nodded Mathias Jensen’s delivery into the corner, with the goal surviving a lengthy review for offside.

  Forest’s response was admirable, though, and they levelled eight minutes later as Harry Toffolo’s cross found Dominguez and his header looped over Flekken, with the goalkeeper appearing to pull his hand away as it went over him.

  The final half-hour was an attack versus defence exercise as Brentford pushed to make their numerical advantage count, but they came up against a resolute Forest rearguard.

  Morgan Gibbs-White produced a fine goal-saving tackle as the Bees broke at speed while debutant defender Murillo cleared off the line from Michael Olakigbe, with Norgaard firing over from the rebound.

  Forest put bodies on the line to see out 13 minutes of injury time and earn a valuable point.