Former Leeds United ‘keeper Paddy Kenny has suggested that Liverpool required some ‘luck’ to defeat Newcastle United on Thursday but admits he is struggling to decide who will win the Premier League this season.
The Reds ran out 3-1 winners at Anfield despite Eddie Howe’s men taking first blood at L4.
“Liverpool have a lot of things going for them,” the ex-shotstopper told Football Insider.
“They have a brilliant squad with a lot of strength in depth now.
“But listen, it still took a wonder goal from Alexander-Arnold and a bit of dodgy refereeing to get past a poor Newcastle side.
“The referee could have easily ruled out that dodgy goal and taken Liverpool’s momentum away.
“The second goal was also a massive defensive error. As daft as it sounds, there were three big things that all went Liverpool’s way.
“They seem to be having the rub of the green when it comes to referee decisions.
“You need that when you challenge for a title. Combine that luck with how good Liverpool are and it’s just frightening.
“I can’t split Liverpool and Man City for the title.”
The 43-year-old joins a growing list of pundits that have criticised Mike Dean’s performance against the Magpies.
Howe himself said that his side were ‘harshly treated’ by the officials after Liverpool’s equalising goal was scored whilst Newcastle midfielder Isaac Hayden was on the floor clutching his head.
He believes the game should’ve been stopped immediately but the referee reportedly claimed that he thought the player was holding his back, not his head.
It’s never beneficial to analyse refereeing performances for too long, and during the course of the season you’d like to think that officiating decisions even themselves out.
Jurgen Klopp’s men are currently one point behind Manchester City who occupy the top spot.
At the moment we look set for another thrilling title race, but it’s still early in the season and a lot can change.
Hopefully, we can continue to perform to the high levels that we have seen in recent weeks – we’ve won all eight games we’ve played since we returned from the international break in November.
We travel to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Sunday which looks set to be one of just four Premier League games played this weekend.
With COVID fears skyrocketing – particularly following the identification of three positive cases in the Liverpool camp – the odds of our impending fixture against Spurs becoming the latest to be postponed is reasonably high. For a less stressing dance with the odds, a roll of the dice with Oneida Slot Omi88 may tickle some fans’ fancies ahead of our impending meeting with Antonio Conte’s men.
Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Curtis Jones were all absent from our last outing after testing positive for the virus and will therefore be unavailable for selection in tomorrow’s 4:30 pm kick-off.
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