VAR Penalty
Head Coach Arne Slot of Liverpool was left aggrieved by several decisions in his team’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea. Despite facing a significant test early in his tenure at Anfield, Slot’s squad emerged victorious, although not without controversy. Chelsea, under Enzo Maresca’s leadership, experienced their second Premier League defeat. Key to Liverpool’s success were goals from Mohamed Salah and Curtis Jones, who sealed the win despite a subpar team performance. Notably, Liverpool had three significant penalty appeals, with only one awarded by referee John Brooks. A major discussion point was Robert Sanchez’s challenge on Curtis Jones, initially ruled a penalty.
Reflecting on the match and officiating, Slot expressed concerns about the referee’s decisions in his post-match interview.
Arne Slot said, “The most important [thing], if you want to have a chance of winning a match like this against Chelsea, is work as hard as we did. It’s not important anymore because we won but it could’ve been a crucial decision for the VAR to overturn the penalty which I couldn’t understand. If the referee looks at it, it looks that VAR shouldn’t have intervened but, if you’re me, it looks like a penalty. Then there’s the red card, yesterday [on Saturday night in the Arsenal match] that was a red card, big decisions because red cards and penalties impact the game a lot.”
