Gerrard: Ref cost Villa upset

STEVEN GERRARD felt Aston Villa were denied a penalty as he bemoaned two refereeing decisions that ruined his Anfield return.

The 41-year-old found himself in previously uncharted territory yesterday, as he stood in the away dugout trying to mastermind a performance from Aston Villa that would frustrate Liverpool and check his old club’s title challenge.

For long periods, it seemed Gerrard might be successful but Villa were undone in the second half when Mohamed Salah hit his 21st goal of the season with a penalty that he converted after being bundled over by Tyrone Mings.

But Gerrard was adamant Salah had fouled the England defender first and — most significantly — he felt Villa had been denied a penalty of their own when, in a late scramble, Danny Ings went down after Alisson Becker careered into him before Trent Alexander-Arnold appeared to push Ollie Watkins.

Gerrard said: ‘I thought we had a decent shout for a penalty. There was certainly contact from Alisson on Danny and, if you follow it, there is a two-hand shove on Ollie Watkins. We thought that deserved the referee and VAR taking another look but it looked like they wanted to move on quickly.

‘Ultimately we have lost the game in the other box which we felt was a foul on Tyrone. It feels harsh but, penalty box to penalty box,

Liverpool were better than us. I thought we did a good job of trying to contain Liverpool — you can try to be too gung-ho and get hit for a scoreline which doesn’t help.’

Though he was given a huge ovation from The Kop before and after the game, there was no love lost in the intervening 96 minutes and Liverpool were pushed to the limit to try and extend their winning sequence to a seventh game, which thrilled manager Jurgen Klopp.

‘At the end, Steven said “congratulations” and I said “thank you!” — it’s not that we really have to talk about it,’ said Klopp. ‘Nothing will come between him and me but, in the end, we are focused. You can be best friends with someone and want to beat them. There is one person it was not easy for and that’s Stevie.’