Pundit Chris Sutton believes Thiago Alcantara should have received a second yellow card during Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Sunday’s affair between the top two in the Premier League was one to remember. Led by Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, the rivals played out a thrilling encounter, one in which the points deserved to be shared. The Reds twice came from behind, with goals from Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane earning them a result away from home.
The match-up was also fiery, with no fewer than five yellow cards dished out by referee Anthony Taylor. Four of them fell Liverpool’s way, as Thiago, Fabinho, Andrew Robertson and Virgil van Dijk found their way into the book, and Sutton believes the first of that quartet was lucky not to receive his marching orders.
He wrote on Twitter: “Thiago should have had a second yellow there…”
TIF Thoughts on Thiago’s challenge…
The challenge in question was Thiago’s lunge at Kevin De Bruyne around the start of the second half. Normally, it would be hard to disagree the Spaniard was fortunate to stay on the pitch, but on this occasion, Taylor had already blown his whistle after £19.8m-valued Thiago himself had been impeded. As such, the ball was deemed to be out of play when he attempted to beat De Bruyne to the ball.
There had been suggestions that Taylor would be biased towards the hosts given he himself is from Manchester, but that didn’t appear to be the case. Fabinho was also perhaps lucky not to be given his marching orders following a very poor tackle on Bernardo Silva.
Will Liverpool win the league?
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Ultimately, the man in the middle did a good job in keeping tempers generally in check during 90 minutes that could potentially have decided where the league title will go at the end of the season. As it is, nothing has changed, and with seven games remaining for both teams, only one point separates them.
While a win would have taken his side top, Klopp will surely be happy with his side’s performance and remain confident a historic quadruple is still on the cards.