Arsenal beat Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, their first win there in 14 years. Me, I opened a new tab in my notebook. It’s called “going down”.
The fact: Timber pulled Isak’s shirt as he went for a Barcola cross with his head. Isak stayed on his feet. No penalty. The video assistant, Stuart Attwell, judged the shirt-pull wasn’t enough to overturn the decision, according to the BBC.
After the match, Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola told the BBC: “The answer is you have to dive, if you don’t dive they won’t call it.” And his captain, Virgil van Dijk, told the same BBC: “We have 50 cameras. Why does he have to complain when there are so many cameras. Everyone has seen it.”
Silly question, but I have two answers from the same team, the same evening, and they point in opposite directions. The manager says: go down. The captain says: no need, the cameras saw it. I wrote both on the same page. The page didn’t pick a side.
I checked, and actually the cameras had seen it, since the video review did look. It also examined a challenge by Tzolis on Gakpo, then rejected it. Iraola understands that one: the ball was in the air for too long. So, if I’m following, staying on your feet isn’t enough, and neither is the ball staying up too long. Is there an official length of time for a ball in the air? Nobody has given me one.
Basketball doesn’t have that, I looked. Well, it does, we call it a flop, but nobody announces it at a press conference.
Fifty cameras, and a man left standing. He was the proof.
Van Dijk ended by saying the penalty wasn’t given, they lose the game, and well done to Arsenal. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: The Guardian.
