With all considered, it’s hard to argue too strongly that Liverpool and Arne Slot didn’t deserve their victory over Chelsea, even if the visitors seriously impressed at Anfield.
Despite losing, Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea side proved just how far they’ve come already under their new manager, taking the initiative against Liverpool in the early stages.In that respect, Liverpool survived a sizable test too, many still liked to point out that Slot hadn’t faced a ‘top’ side despite his success in England so far.
But with Curtis Jones at the heart of their performance, Liverpool certainly showed their readiness to go all the way in the title-race, something they’ll look to prove in London next weekend.
Alan Shearer thinks Liverpool were wrongly denied a penalty against ChelseaThat being said, when speaking on ‘The Rest Is Football’ podcast, Alan Shearer was seriously surprised by one decision VAR made during Liverpool’s 2-1 win.VAR overturned Liverpool’s second penalty, deciding that Robert Sanchez had not fouled Curtis Jones.
And when speaking with Gary Lineker on the podcast, Shearer was adamant that it was the wrong decision, feeling as if the penalty should have stood.Shearer said: “We were told about the high bar and sometimes winning the ball or getting a touch to the ball is not necessarily enough.
If you wipe the player out, then also that can be deemed as a foul or as a penalty. And that’s what I thought it was.“And I thought once the referee had given it, then it was one of those where he was never going to overturn it. And I was really surprised that he did.”Lineker replied: “I wasn’t so surprised.
My argument would be on that one is that when you’ve got two players coming at each other, because obviously Jones’ touch was a little bit heavy.“So it became almost a 50/50 between the two. And you’ve got two players coming in opposite directions fairly quickly, fairly aggressively. I think the only way that can be a foul is the person that doesn’t get there first.
And I thought once the keeper gets there first, they’re both basically just colliding into each other.”Curtis Jones ran the show against ChelseaFortunately, that controversial VAR decision didn’t really influence the outcome of the game – Liverpool still won despite being denied another spot kick.It’s a subjective call in fairness, one that will divide opinion.
But perhaps that explains why VAR shouldn’t have intervened, it’s hard to say that there was a ‘clear and obvious’ mistakeIn that scenario, many would probably like to see the referee’s decision being upheld.
On a different note, Jamie Carragher spotted something unusual about Slot during Sunday’s win, a manager who was clearly getting caught up in the importance of the tie.That being said, Liverpool now have some tricky league fixtures to navigate in order to continue their near perfect start.
