William Saliba admitted Arsenal were fortunate not to concede a penalty when Martin Odegaard handled the ball inside the area, and the reasoning behind Liverpool being denied a spot kick has been revealed.
Liverpool and Arsenal played out a pulsating 1-1 draw on Saturday evening, a result neither side wanted, but both will settle for.
The stalemate means it’s the Gunners who’ll top the table at Christmas. Liverpool remain level on points with Aston Villa in joint-second, while Tottenham moved into fourth following their narrow 2-1 victory over Everton. Manchester City are six points off the pace in fifth, though do have a game in hand.
Unquestionably the biggest talking point to come out of the Anfield on Saturday was the non-awarding of a penalty for an alleged handball offence by Martin Odegaard.
Arsenal led 1-0 at the time thanks to Gabriel Magalhaes’ headed opener. With Jurgen Klopp’s side piling on the pressure in response, Odegaard handled inside the area and prevented Mohamed Salah from haring into the box as a result.
Liverpool vehemently appealed and the incident was checked by VAR David Coote. However, Coote opted against calling for on-field referee Chris Kavanagh to take a second look via the pitch-side monitor.
When speaking to Viaplay post-match, Arsenal centre-half, William Saliba, displayed refreshing honesty when readily admitting it was a clear penalty.
The Frenchman – who was named man of the match by Sky Sports – admitted: “Yeah, of course. It was a penalty but I’m not the ref and they have to accept [it].”
Reasoning for non-award revealed
Liverpool fans felt particularly aggrieved, with the infamous Luis Diaz offside error still in the backs of their minds.
The Odegaard incident took social media by storm and Sky presenter, Dave Jones, revealed VAR’s reasoning for the non-award in the post-match fall-out.
“This is red hot on social media,” he began. “Liverpool fans don’t understand why they don’t get a penalty.
“If you haven’t heard the language used by VAR as to why it was not given after a review, it was because they feel like Odegaard’s hand was moving back towards his body as he goes down.”
Unsurprisingly, Reds boss Klopp was particularly displeased with his side once again coming out on the wrong side of a close call.
“I’m pretty sure someone will explain to me it’s not a handball but I don’t know how,” Klopp told Sky Sports.
“I don’t think the ref can see because I have no clue where he was in that moment but when somebody is sitting [in the VAR room at Stockley Park], how can he not come to the conclusion and maybe it might be worth having another look.”
