The Premier League were forced to release a statement during Liverpool’s trip to Manchester City after the Reds thought they had scored a third goal. Curtis Jones ran away to celebrate after tapping the ball home in the 56th minute following Dominik Szoboszlai’s unselfish pass across the area.
Jones ran away to celebrate in front of the travelling Liverpool supporters, but there was a fear that the goal could get ruled out. Replays showed that Szoboszlai may have strayed beyond the last marker before running through on goal and squaring for Reds midfielder Jones to slot in from close-range.
And following a brief VAR check, referee Anthony Taylor instructed that the goal was going to be chalked off because Szoboszlai was offside in the build-up. Liverpool remained 2-0 up after Mohamed Salah and Szoboszlai scored in the first half to put the Reds in a commanding position.
Moments after the decision was made to rule out Liverpool’s third goal, the Premier League released a statement. “#MCILIV – 56’ VAR OVERTURNVAR recommended that Liverpool’s goal was disallowed as Szoboszlai was in an offside position in the build-up,” the Premier League statement read.
Before the VAR decision was made, Mike Dean told Sky Sports: “I think from my point of view in the gantry he looks offside. The assistant referee Gary Beswick has every right to keep his flag down and obviously that play materialises. Then they go back to the VAR, in my opinion looking at the still pictures he looks just offside.”
Arsenal would have been watching on with eagle-eyes at whether Liverpool could pounce and move 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League after Mikel Arteta’s side lost 1-0 to West Ham on Saturday. The Gunners were beaten courtesy of Jarrod Bowen’s first-half header.
It was a crushing defeat for Arteta’s men, who were looking to continue their fine run of form after going 15 matches unbeaten in the Premier League. Speaking in his post-match press conference, Arteta admitted he was “very disappointed” and “angry” at his side’s performance throughout.
Arteta said: “Very disappointed, obviously very angry as well. I think we have to congratulate West Ham for the victory and the game that they played but I think a lot on our side we never got right.
“It didn’t allow us to get enough momentum, enough sequence of play with positive action that could deliver into situations of threat for there and even though all the ball we had, then 20 shots, I never felt that we were at the standards or the levels we needed to have more threat and then don’t allow them to run. We lost a lot of balls and we allowed West Ham to run into very dangerous positions.”
