Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk looks like he got away with a bad challenge on Anthony Gordon during yesterday’s 3-3 draw against Newcastle United at St James’ Park.
Both teams ended up sharing the points in a thrilling encounter, but Van Dijk was perhaps lucky to stay on the pitch as footage has emerged of him shoving Gordon over in the penalty
Watch below as this has been flagged by a Newcastle fan account on X, formerly Twitter, with the Magpies perhaps having justification for feeling like they were robbed of a penalty here, while Liverpool were fortunate to still have all eleven men on the pitch…
Van Dijk was nowhere near the ball, so there’s really no justification for him barging into Gordon like this, and LFC were probably quite lucky that the referee missed it.
Van Dijk is a great player on his day, but this was a moment of madness from the Netherlands international and not the kind of moments Reds fans will want to see too much of as it could end up costing them further down the line in this title race.
Should Virgil van Dijk have been sent off for Anthony Gordon challenge?
From our point of view, we think Newcastle supporters have every right to feel aggrieved here, especially as a few other incidents didn’t really go their way either.
Most notably, the referee blew the full time whistle just as Eddie Howe’s side were breaking away on what looked like a very promising counter attack.
We’ve seen numerous poor refereeing performances in the Premier League this season, and unfortunately it seems like this was another one were standards just weren’t good enough.
Liverpool dropped points and saw their lead at the top of the table reduced to seven points, but they could even have lost this game if key decisions hadn’t gone their way.