Former Premier League referee Jeff Winter expressed his surprise at the one-sided nature of Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Manchester City, having no objections to Mohamed Salah’s penalty following a foul on Luis Diaz.
Arne Slot’s Reds comfortably overcame Pep Guardiola’s side, extending their lead at the top of the Premier League to nine points. Referee Chris Kavanagh had few significant decisions to make during the crucial Sunday showdown, a welcome change after recent scrutiny of officiating and VAR.
Liverpool now faces another pivotal week, first heading to St. James’ Park to take on Newcastle before making what could be its final trip across Stanley Park to play Everton. Winter confessed he expected the match officials and verdicts from Stockley Park to dominate post-match discussions.
However, the former Premier League referee described the game as one-sided, with the only major decision – Diaz being taken down by goalkeeper Stefan Ortega – deemed correct. “This is one game which I think was the one we thought we’d all be talking about thinking there were going to be lots of incidents,” he told Grosvenor Casino.
“But it was quite quiet and sometimes when the top two teams meet or two of the two teams meet, as I don’t suppose you can say Man City are one of the top two teams at the moment, they seem the cancel each other out, but this was a fairly one-sided game.
“There was a penalty, and some people might argue that there wasn’t really contact with the Liverpool player, but the action of the goalkeeper flying out actually caused the Liverpool player to have to take evasive action. He more or less jumped over the challenge, so the penalty awarded was okay on that one in my opinion.”
