
Liverpool fans had their hearts in their mouths on Sunday when Gabriel Jesus was barged into Alisson Becker by Virgil van Dijk.
But referee Anthony Taylor waved the incident away and the Reds escaped without punishment.
Thiago Alcantara probably deserved to be sent off for accumulation of bookable offences but Anthony Taylor took a lenient view on proceedings.
The game was allowed to flow but Manchester City fans will certainly ask questions of VAR and television broadcasters after Gabriel Jesus’ penalty incident wasn’t even replayed let alone reviewed.
Obviously, I’m relieved it wasn’t given but there’s an alarming lack of consistency in the refereeing in the Premier League at the moment and while the incident wasn’t awarded as a penalty, it’s similar to the penalty Diogo Jota won against Crystal Palace.
The Reds won 3-1 won in that game, with Fabinho stepping up to dispatch the spot-kick but when Jota ran into Vincent Guaita, VAR awarded a penalty which, in retrospect, was quite soft.
While I don’t think Alisson did anything wrong, the slight shove from van Dijk that sends Jesus into the goalkeeper is where the contentious nature of the decision comes into play.
If that was one of the Liverpool attackers, I know I would have been furious that it wasn’t reviewed or that there wasn’t even a single replay on live television.
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