Jurgen Klopp was again unimpressed by the referees after Ibrahima Konate was sent off during Liverpool’s loss to Arsenal.Liverpool suffered their second Premier League defeat of the season when they lost 3-1 to the Gunners on Sunday. As a result, United still lead the title race, but Arsenal are now just two points behind and a second successive win would see Manchester City move ahead of Liverpool.
To make matters worse for Klopp’s side, Konate was sent off in the 88th minute after picking up two yellow cards for a foul on Kai Havertz. Despite Joe Gomez being let off early on, his absence meant Liverpool were very vulnerable down the right, allowing Leandro Trossar to slot in easily and allow Arsenal to score three minutes later.
It was 2-1 at the time of the red card but if it had stayed the result could have been different and Klopp appeared to give a sarcastic thumbs up to the referee’s decision. Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, the manager said he was not bothered by Konate’s sending off and that several Arsenal players had escaped punishment for similar offences.“We had a lot of games against us today.
This referee (Anthony Taylor) red carded me against Manchester City for a tackle between Bernardo Silva and Mo Salah.”The same thing happened to [Diogo] Jota today, but he didn’t get a red card.” I can not believe.”At that moment, Konate was holding Havertz for the first yellow card.
Havertz goes down and the referee gives Konate a yellow card.“Gabriel [Magahaels] does the same thing as [Darwin] Nunez, but without the yellow card!”We should have played better, but everything was against us! It’s true that we lost the game. “Wow, that’s weird.”Konate will now miss Liverpool’s game against Burnley next Saturday, leaving Klopp desperate for a centre-back spot and Joel Matip out for the rest of the season through injury.
