This was a very good game between two very good teams pockmarked by several fairly major individual mistakes from players on both sides. Significant human errors, if you will.
We are truly sorry about that. And the headline. We did try to resist, but have almost zero willpower for resisting obvious weak gags. We’re not alone, because ‘replay the game’ is currently trending on online hellscape X – formerly online hellscape Twitter – and even Sky Sports themselves are tweeting deliberately and wildly misleading still images of incidents because who wants facts when you can get all the delicious engagement from people who think the cry-laughing emoji is a sign of wit?
There was no way this game could avoid being coloured by the week that preceded it. For both sides. Brighton’s 6-1 shoeing at Aston Villa is the sort of thing that can shake a side whose style of play requires absolute buy-in and total confidence. Liverpool, meanwhile, must now accept that any major decision in any of their games has a prism through which it will be viewed.
Look, we’re even doing it now, despite ourselves. And it’s a shame, because this was a good and fun football match and whatever notable errors there were came almost entirely from the playing rather than officiating members of the ensemble. There is literally no need to talk about officials at all after this one. But look at us all.
The first notable error was from Liverpool, conceding a catastrophic opening goal in which error compounded error until Alisson couldn’t do anything and Alexis Mac Allister was very visibly not happy with this. Good process. It was a messy goal. With Trent Alexander-Arnold moving into his customary midfield/right-back hybrid position, Alisson brought the ball out of his area to become the right centre-back in a back four as Liverpool looked to play the ball out from the back. He squared the ball to Virgil van Dijk, who played a hospital pass to Mac Allister, who was picked off by the excellent Simon Adingra and, with Alisson slow to realise the disaster unfolding around him (sometimes the analogies will be too obvious), the Brighton winger rolled the ball into an only half-guarded net.
But Liverpool are at their best when behind, so maybe it was all part of some plan. Certainly they weren’t behind for long thanks to a quickfire Mo Salah double in five minutes before the break. The first goal came from a Lewis Dunk double-error; first he gave the ball away, and then in classic style compounded it by jumping out of position to try and make amends, leaving a gap that Liverpool ruthlessly exposed via a brilliantly aware Harvey Elliott dummy and crisp Salah finish.
Liverpool’s second came as Pascal Gross made a total hash of playing out from the back, and was left with no choice but to drag Dominic Szoboszlai to the ground. It was a clear penalty. That clear penalty was given. Salah scored that clear penalty.
Then people started to get very exercised online about whether Gross’ act constituted denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity. There was certainly no attempt to play the ball, and therefore a red card would have been in play. It’s a reasonable question to ask, but it’s a very subjective call and Szoboszlai was not yet in possession of the ball. He would soon have been, had Gross not interfered in such illegal fashion. It is, we’re afraid to say, One Of Those and it really would be helpful if everyone could accept as much rather than add it to the growing sense of injustice and anger bubbling up around every single thing officials do right now. This was not some egregious and unforgivable mistake. It is easy to argue it was no mistake at all.
We saw this in reverse in the second half, when a much-improved Brighton enjoyed a good spell that culminated in their equaliser. Shortly before it, they had penalty appeals turned down when the ball bounced from Van Dijk’s knee and into his hand. It was therefore not a penalty. This was not even a contentious decision, it was a very easy one no matter how many misleading still images one chooses to share.
It was therefore disappointing to see Roberto De Zerbi react as he did, even after seeing a replay. His response earned him a caution and advice to maybe dial it down a notch from Jurgen Klopp. That in itself right now should be enough to give anyone pause.
Dunk’s equaliser and actual amends-making for his earlier error probably ensured we got the right result in a game both teams led but neither won. Both teams will probably see this more as points lost than a point won, especially given how tight things are becoming at the top right now.
Liverpool had a superb chance to go 3-1 up when Szoboszlai brilliantly teed up Ryan Gravenberch, who if anything almost hit the ball too well in thumping it against the crossbar when he really should have scored.
Both teams had opportunities to win it at 2-2 but couldn’t take them. Both teams have the opportunity not to make this about refereeing decisions that were broadly correct. Let’s hope they take that chance, at least.