Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold has revealed that he feared a VAR intervention for handball prior to Liverpool’s opener in their crucial 3-1 over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at Anfield.
The visiting players and their Spanish boss were left seething when referee Michael Oliver did not award a penalty against the Reds full-back, who appeared to handle the ball in the area, just a few seconds before Liverpool took the lead.
Brazilian midfielder Fabinho smashed Liverpool into a sixth-minute lead shortly after, before Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane’s goals took the game away from but Bernardo Silva ensured that Liverpool would not keep a clean sheet.
However, the controversial decision of the game was when the ball hit Alexander Arnold on the hand and Manchester City wasn’t awarded the penalty. The 21-year-old English right-back was asked by reporters after the game whether he feared the worst while the VAR check was going on and he replied by stating: “Obviously, yeah you know there’s VAR, I think it has hit me an arm, but I think it’s hit Bernardo Silva’s first. It’s one of those you have to carry on playing, we went down the other end and punished them. They complained but you have to keep on playing.”
Liverpool’s victory over the reigning champions of England sees them head into the international break with an eight-point lead at the summit of the Premier League table, and a nine-point gap ahead of Manchester City
Jurgen Klopp’s Reds earned 97 points last term and were still pipped to the title by the blue half of Manchester but the win over their title rivals is a big step forward to ending the 30-year drought for a Premier League title.
