‘He’s a good friend’: Shay Given claims Liverpool player made rival lose his head

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Shay Given has claimed that James Milner ‘got away with one’ on Sunday during Liverpool’s 2-2 draw against Manchester City, which left Pep Guardiola ‘raging’, as he told Premier League Productions (03/10/21 at 7:10 pm).

With Trent Alexander-Arnold out injured, Milner had to fill in at right-back, with the Liverpool veteran finding life tough against Man City’s young gun, Phil Foden.

There were three moments during the game that were controversial involving the Liverpool and Man City duo.

The first was a challenge from Milner on Foden, as he tried bursting into the area, no foul was given, even though there were cries for a penalty/free-kick to be awarded.

Milner was eventually booked for a foul, and then during the second period, he left his leg out as Bernardo Silva tried dancing past him.

The foul was awarded for the last challenge, but no yellow card, and former Man City goalkeeper Given, who is a good friend of Milner, shared how the ex-England international made Guardiola lose his head.

“For me, it was a foul,” said Given. “If that’s anywhere else on the pitch, then that’s a foul. In the second half, a Man City player gets booked for the same thing.

“James will have no arguments with this one (his actual yellow card). We talked about how well Foden played all game.

“We did feel that he would take him off at half-time because Foden was Man City’s best player in the first half.

“James knows what he is doing there (foul just before he got subbed). I know James, he is a good friend of mine. That, in any walk of life is another yellow card.

“You can see Pep is raging. There is wry smile on James from the bench, maybe he knows he got away with one. Pep, at this stage, was totally gone.”

There’s just something about Foden and how he performs when he locks horns with Liverpool.

Whilst a certain Sergio Aguero failed to score at Anfield, the young English flyer has now scored on three occasions against the Reds.

And given that he has plenty more years in his tank, you can bet your bottom dollar that he will probably find the back of the net a few more times against the Merseyside club.