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Liverpool supporters are rightfully raging on Monday morning after being denied a clear penalty during their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal.
Alexander Isak’s shirt was clearly pulled by Jurrien Timber as he went up for a header which he potentially could have scored from in the first-half. Virgil van Dijk was furious about the non-awarding of a spot-kick, and he had good reason to be.
The incident has prompted a debate over whether Isak should have exaggerated the contact in order to give referee Andy Madley a decision to make. However, in an infuriating, uncanny twist, it turns out Liverpool had an almost identical situation against Arsenal at Anfield in 2019, where Mohamed Salah had his shirt pulled by David Luiz, stayed on his feet and won a penalty.
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Liverpool have a LOT of attacking options and someone has to miss out 👀 What front three would you select?
Salah’s clash with Luiz was even in the same penalty box as Isak’s battle against Timber. Liverpool were attacking the Anfield Road end in August 2019 when Salah was thwarted by the Brazilian centre-back.
Running onto a clever first-time touch from Roberto Firmino, Salah was in on goal before Luiz decided to pull back his shirt.
The contact was virtually identical in terms of length to that of Timber on Isak seven years later, and, just like his future Liverpool teammate, Salah did not go down.
The Egyptian legend was often accused of diving during his time with Liverpool, or at least going down too easily, but he should be commended for not doing so on this occasion.
The referee on the day, Anthony Taylor, correctly recognised the infringement nonetheless, and blew straight away to hand Liverpool a spot-kick. Luiz was even booked before Salah blasted home to put the Reds 2-0 up in a game they would go on to win 3-1.
Times have changed, obviously, in the years since, with this incident arriving before the age of VAR. Nevertheless, that should have made it even less necessary for Isak to throw himself to the ground.
The main difference between these two decisions was that the referee in question decided in real time to award the penalty. Where Taylor was quick to blow up, Madley did not, with VAR likely deciding that the referee of Sunday’s match had had a clear view when making his call, and had therefore not made a ‘clear and obvious’ error.
All football fans want from officials is consistency, really. And though it probably is true that Isak would have been given a penalty, either by Madley himself or by his video assistants, Salah’s incident clearly demonstrates that he should not have had to.
Arsenal, on the other hand, can consider themselves extremely lucky that lightning did not strike twice.
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