Aston Villa left Anfield empty-handed after suffering a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool on Saturday evening.
Even though both sides are in the Champions League – and they were in action in midweek – they both entered the match in contrasting moods.
Liverpool are flying high in Europe and the Premier League – sitting top in both tables and have only lost one game in all competitions.
Whereas, Aston Villa went to Anfield hoping to avoid four defeats on the bounce, but that’s exactly what happened.
The game in itself drew some talking points, and in some cases, it even resulted in Unai Emery being frustrated and you don’t normally see that from him.
The home side hit Aston Villa on the counter in the first half and Darwin Nunez obliged by opening the scoring.
Villa had their chances, but were denied by Caoimhin Kelleher in between the sticks or they were just wasteful in taking their chances.
But some calls frustrated Stan Collymore and he feels there needs to be a change.
Stan Collymore slams officiating during Liverpool v Aston Villa
The biggest talking point was the decison not to award Pau Torres a penalty in the second half – with the scores still 1-0 – when Conor Bradley pulled on his shirt.
The on-field referee David Coote waved away the call and so did VAR, with Collymore being asked about the officiating on Twitter.
The former striker stated that, for both sides, it was ‘incredibly poor’ and he feels English football needs to address this ‘huge gap’ between themselves and others.
“I thought it was incredibly poor,” responded Collymore on what he thought of the officiating during Liverpool v Aston Villa.
“And if I were playing for Villa or Liverpool tonight, I wouldn’t be happy with some key decisions. Until English football addresses the huge gap in quality referees compared to other nations, we’ll get a less-than-vintage crop. Same for every one of 20 teams.”
Why VAR didn’t award Pau Torres a penalty during Aston Villa’s defeat to Liverpool
Sometimes, you can tell by the players’ reaction that something isn’t right and that was the case with the Torres incident.
As soon as Bradley stopped him from getting to the ball, his reaction spoke volumes, but despite VAR checking the call, they decided against awarding a penalty.
According to Alan Shearer on Match of the Day, the reason behind that was that Bradley didn’t pull on Torres’ shirt for long enough.
Yes, you heard that right! He probably needed to give him a hug and all before a penalty was awarded!
“There is no doubt that he is pulling his shirt,” said Shearer. “But what they will tell you is that it isn’t sustained.”
