Liverpool cemented their place at the top of the Premier League table with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday night
Former Liverpool forward Michael Owen was left baffled by referee David Coote’s decision not to award Aston Villa a penalty during the Reds’ 2-0 victory at Anfield on Saturday.
Arne Slot’s side cemented their place at the top of the Premier League table after Manchester City were beaten 2-1 by Brighton in an earlier kick off. Goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah fired the Reds five points clear of their nearest rivals after 11 games.
However, the win wasn’t without controversy as the visitors had two penalty appeals waved away by Coote. One came shortly after the break and before Liverpool’s second as Pau Torres went down in the box following a free kick from Lucas Digne.
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VAR did intervene, but the check was swift as Conor Bradley wasn’t adjudged to have fouled the Villa defender. Salah then put the result beyond doubt with his 10th goal of the season.
Unai Emery criticised the decisions that went against his team after the match, but he wasn’t the only one that felt Villa should have had a penalty. Owen believes there was a blatant pull from Bradley on Torres.
“It’s a penalty, you can’t do that,” the former Liverpool striker told Premier League Productions. “There’s just a blatant pull, Pau Torres is there at the front post, gets dragged out of that area with a shirt pull.
“If the ball goes to the back post and floats over everybody, then I think turn a blind to that, didn’t affect the play. That is a blatant pull. I’m astonished, once that went to VAR, astonished they didn’t give a penalty.
“I think that’s a stonewall penalty, personally. I don’t think there’s any debate in that, he literally pulls him out. It doesn’t matter if he’s pulling him for one minute or one second, he drags him out of it.”
