Aston Villa and Liverpool played out an eventful game at Anfield on Saturday.
Arne Slot’s side scored a goal on either side of the half – Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah – to record the points.
That meant that Aston Villa have now lost four games in a row and they have every right to be frustrated.
When Villa lost 1-0 to Club Brugge in midweek, they had no complaints because it was a poor performance in the Champions League, even if Tyrone Mings’ bizarre penalty handball was the difference.
The same could be said for when Unai Emery watched his side ship four goals at Tottenham last week, once again, no complaints.
But fans have every right to complain, moan and express their annoyance at the Liverpool game because of what happened during the match.
Even Michael Owen was siding with Aston Villa, as he expressed post-match.
Michael Owen says Aston Villa should have had two penalties against Liverpool
In the first half, Ollie Watkins thought he had been fouled by Ibrahima Konate in the penalty area, with the incident occurring right in front of the away fans.
Instead, a free-kick was given to the opposition, which was very, very odd. This wasn’t a penalty, nor a free kick to Liverpool.
Either a goal kick or a corner, depending on who the ball came off last, but Michael Owen felt it was a penalty, even though he was pleased that VAR didn’t get involved.
But the one where Owen was absolutely certain was the Pau Torres and Conor Bradley incident.
The former striker slammed the Liverpool right-back for dragging the Villa centre-back down when he tried to head the ball from a set-piece by saying ‘you simply can’t do that’, as he told Premier League Productions (09/11/24 at 10:50 pm).
“This will cause debate and I am actually really pleased that VAR didn’t get involved because, some people think ‘yeah’ and some people think ‘no’,” said Owen about the Watkins penalty appeal.
“I thought, if anything, Konate did come across Ollie Watkins. It was a hard one to say. I think probably (it is a penalty).
“And I would say this one (Torres) definitely. You simply can’t do this. You simply can’t do this. Pau Torres at the front post there, he gets dragged out of the way, if the ball floats to the far post, then you say ‘yeah, maybe. Let’s turn a blind eye’. But that ball was going to Pau Torres, you can’t drag him out of the picture. I thought it was a definite penalty and I was surprised VAR didn’t change it.”
Why Pau Torres didn’t get a penalty against Liverpool?
The Watkins incident is one most Villa fans feel isn’t a penalty and that incident doesn’t bother them.
But the Torres one was baffling and you have to question why VAR – Paul Tierney was on duty – didn’t tell David Coote to look at the incident on his monitor.
According to Alan Shearer, it could be because Bradley wasn’t pulling on Torres’ shirt long enough for the spot-kick to be awarded, which is a bonkers rule.
Only last season, Erling Haaland was awarded a penalty against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge when Marc Cucurella, for a split second, pulled back on his shirt and stopped him from getting the ball.
“There is no doubt that he is pulling his shirt,” Shearer told Match of the Day. “But what they will tell you is that it isn’t sustained.”
