Former Premier League referee gives blunt verdict on Liverpool penalty shout vs Man City

Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg believes Liverpool should have been awarded a late penalty against Manchester City on Sunday.

City and Liverpool played out a thrilling 1-1 draw at Anfield as the title race took yet more twists and turns. John Stones opened the scoring after a brilliantly worked set-piece before Alexis Mac Allister levelled from the spot, following Ederson's foul on Darwin Nunez.

Liverpool heaped the pressure on City at a raucous Anfield and felt aggrieved not to have been awarded a late penalty after Jeremy Doku appeared to catch Mac Allister in the chest when trying to clear the ball. Referee Michael Oliver did not award a spot-kick and following a VAR check, was adjudged to have made the right decision.

"Liverpool should have been awarded a stoppage-time penalty against Manchester City but this is the problem in the Premier League right now – referees are making mistakes in matches and not being helped by their VARs," Clattenburg wrote in his column for The Daily Mail. "The ball bounces up. Alexis Mac Allister moves towards it. Jeremy Doku’s foot is high. He catches Mac Allister in the chest.

"Outside of the box, this would have resulted in a free-kick, every day of the week. Just because it happened inside the box does not suddenly transform it into a clean challenge when Mac Allister might be left playing connect the dots on his chest on Monday morning.

"Referee Michael Oliver missed it in real-time at the end of an exhausting and exhilarating contest and so it was on VAR Stuart Attwell to intervene. This is where the frustration lies – we have seen similar incidents this weekend where Stockley Park should have told their colleagues on the ground that they had missed a penalty or a red card but didn’t."

City were forced to ride out huge pressure on yet another tough afternoon at Anfield, but were able to keep Liverpool down to one goal and escape with a point. The result leaves Arsenal top of the table going into the March international break, with none of the title-challenging trio in action this weekend due to the FA Cup quarter-final commitments of themselves or their original opponents.