Liverpool can expect a potential apology from the PGMOL in the coming weeks after Andy Madley failed to award them a blatant penalty during their loss against Arsenal on Sunday.

Alexander Isak clearly had his shirt pulled by Jurrien Timber as he went up for a header in the first-half. Neither Madley, nor VAR assistant Stuart Attwell saw anything wrong with the Arsenal defender’s attempt to restrict Isak’s movement.

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Players of Liverpool celebrate during the Carabao Cup Fourth Round match between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield on October 28, 2026 in Liverpool, England.

Gerrard says Liverpool should have had a penalty

Some Arsenal fans have been adamant that although Liverpool should have had a penalty, they should have already been down to 10 men. However, former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has stated that Trey Nyoni should not have been sent off for an early foul on Martin Odegaard.

Though the officials got that one right, they got the Isak one very wrong indeed. Gerrard was at Anfield for Sunday’s game, and the Scouser has not held back on his assessment of the incident.

“You could definitely see that there was something there. From where I was sitting it wasn’t clear, I wasn’t sitting there thinking to myself ‘that’s a pen, a definite pen,’ but the crowd reaction, you’re going off it wondering if there’s something there,” Gerrard said on the Overlap Daily when asked for his view of the shirt pull inside the ground.

“There’s no excuse for it is there really. I’d be saying the same if this was anyone. To hold someone’s shirt for that long and to have three or four opportunities to see that and slow it down and the amount of cameras that are in stadiums at the moment. It’s really poor from Stuart Attwell.”

Told of Andoni Iraola’s full-time comments that Isak should have gone down to ensure Madley had a decision to make, Gerrard concluded that it should not be on the player to make the officials do their jobs correctly.

“You can’t win in that situation,” he said. “You try to make it more dramatic to try and convince the referee and then people say you’re cheating. In this day and age with the amount of cameras and technology we’ve got, you shouldn’t have to make the most of anything, especially if someone’s sitting there watching it.

“They should know that that was a clear pull for a length of time to stop you getting on the end of a cross which was a goalscoring opportunity. It’s a penalty. Mikel Arteta said after the game that they rode their luck at times and I think he’s alluding to that incident.”

Arteta in fact stated that he had not seen the incident and would not comment any further on it. In doing so, the embarrassment of the officials also stretched to the Arsenal manager himself.