Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane disagree on Michael Oliver's decision to award Arsenal a penalty in their 3-2 win over Liverpool on Sunday.
Gabriel Martinelli opened the scoring on the day by finding the back of the net in just 58 seconds. Liverpool levelled proceedings through Darwin Nunez after 34 minutes but Bukayo Saka gave Arsenal the lead for a second time on the stroke of half-time. Liverpool restored parity again on 53 minutes after Roberto Firmino scored his 10th goal against the Gunners in just 17 appearances.
But the most controversial moment arguably came around 15 minutes from time after Arsenal were awarded a penalty thanks to a challenge from Thiago Alcantara on Gabriel Jesus. Many have described the decision as 'soft' or 'harsh', primarily because it led to the winning goal.
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Saka had to wait more than two minutes to take the spot-kick after a disagreement between Arsenal and Liverpool players broke out in the away team's area. Despite the pressure, the Englishman made no mistake from 12 yards as he slotted his attempt past Alisson Becker, who guessed the right way but couldn't prevent the ball from ending up in the bottom corner.
Reflecting on Oliver's decision to award a penalty, Carragher said on Monday Night Football: "I don’t think it was a penalty. But when looking at the system, why is no one playing 4-4-2, because teams are now playing so many different systems with interchange and what happens is, you get players in positions who are not sure on who they are picking up, and it was a problem for Liverpool when Arsenal got up the pitch. Liverpool should clear the ball, Fabinho from there should do better.
"I don’t think it was a penalty and thought it was very harsh, and that is why I think teams do not play 4-4-2 anymore."
Meanwhile, Keane thinks it's a penalty, but he's more concerned by the poor positioning of Liverpool's more experienced players.
"It’s tough but, he does make contact and you are in trouble. I thought for the two goals, Thiago was very poor in terms of his midfield reactions. It is no good having all that experience and not using it and from all those Liverpool point of view, it is so poor and actually hard to believe you are watching because it is bad positional play from experienced players."
Arsenal won't care too much. Three points means that they top the table for yet another week and they'll be looking to build on that sensational form with victories over Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League on Thursday and Leeds United in the Premier League on Sunday.
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