Michael Owen has suggested that Trent Alexander-Arnold could have been sent off twice during Liverpool’s dramatic 2-1 win at Newcastle United on Sunday.
During the early stages of the heavyweight Premier League clash at St James’ Park, Trent Alexander-Arnold was shown a yellow for dissent, with Owen stating that he ‘agreed’ with the booking, but he should have been given a foul, in the first place.
But moments later, the Liverpool right-back should have got a second yellow for a clear shove on Anthony Gordon, but whilst the foul was awarded, there was no card to the anger of everyone in Newcastle United colours, with Owen adding that he was ‘lucky’ to be on the pitch, as he told Premier League Productions (27/08/23 at 5:25 pm).
Where Owen thinks that Alexander-Arnold could have received a second red is if Gordon, who opened the scoring, went down when he pounced on a mistake from his fellow countryman.
Trent didn’t control Mo Salah’s back pass, and as Gordon slipped away from the 24-year-old, he grabbed hold of his shirt – instead, it was Virgil van Dijk who was told to have an early bath for taking down Alexander Isak moments later.
Nonetheless, the former Everton man stayed on his feet, ran through on goal and slotted home, with Owen stating that it could have been another red-card moment for the Liverpool star.
“I have got no problem with the yellow card for throwing the ball away,” said Owen. “But I wish the referee had just given the foul, this was a definite foul (on Alexander-Arnold), he gets bundled off the pitch and slides six yards off it.
“Once he didn’t give the foul, you can’t show dissent like that and you can’t throw the ball away, so agree with the yellow, then he gets very, very lucky. That was a yellow card (bringing down Gordon moments after the first yellow) and he was lucky to be on the pitch.
“Let’s have a look at that goal, in a little bit more detail – Salah doesn’t give Trent the best of balls and it was just a bad touch.
“But I just want to stop it, we talk about Trent Alexander-Arnold being lucky to be on the pitch. If Gordon goes down here, look at that. I mean he has a full grab of the shirt and Gordon decides to stay on his feet.”
An eventful evening for Alexander-Arnold and Liverpool
Over the years and decades, this fixture has always lived up to the hype, with those 4-3’s of the past being the standouts.
Well, you can write this game into the history books, even though Newcastle, once again, have been on the wrong side of it.
Stan Collymore was the hero back then for the Reds, but now it’s super-sub Darwin Nunez, with a devastating brace from the bench.
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