Liverpool are no longer able to surpass the Premier League record for points in a single season after losing 2-1 at Arsenal last night.
After a strong start, during which Sadio Mane put the Reds in front, uncharacteristic errors from Virgil van Dijk and Alisson handed the Gunners victory.
After looking at those defensive mistakes, Gary Lineker, Ian Wright and Tim Cahill in the Match of the Day (10:45, BBC1, 15/07) pored over a couple of flashpoints.
All three men drew similarities between a challenge by Trent Alexander-Arnold and the one which got Arsenal man Eddie Nketiah sent off against Leicester last week.
Lineker called the two ‘very similar’, before Gunners legend Ian Wright stated his frustration that the reason why Alexander-Arnold wasn’t dismissed would be long-winded and vague.
He said: “There’ll probably be some long-winded reason why that’s not a sending off but Eddie Nketiah’s is. Something like that. They were (very similar).”
Alexander-Arnold caught Bukayo Saka high on the leg, with perhaps the only possible difference that he didn’t have as much force behind him as he could have.
But the differences do look minimal, and a red card would have ended Alexander-Arnold’s season early, if he got a three-match ban.
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