Interim Tottenham boss Ryan Mason was left seething after Diogo Jota escaped a red card before scoring Liverpool’s late winner in their 4-3 win at Anfield. Curtis Jones, Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah had put the Reds 3-0 up after just 15 minutes, but Harry Kane and Son Heung-min reduced the deficit before Richarlison equalised in injury time with his first ever Premier League goal for Spurs. However, just 99 seconds later, Jota latched on to a poor back pass from Lucas Moura to win the game in the 94th minute.
The forward was lucky to be on the pitch having kicked Oliver Skipp in the head, with the midfielder requiring stitches, but was only shown a yellow card. Mason expressed his disbelief to Sky Sports, saying: ‘Probably one of the clearest red cards I’ve seen on Oliver Skipp. I have to be careful what I see but ultimately that’s an impossible one to miss. When you talk about endangering an opponent, to draw blood from a stud when his head is 5ft in the air just baffles me. That type of decision is the difference between winning the game or not.’
Mason later told the BBC: ‘It endangered the opponent, Skipp needs stitches and Jota has scored the goal when he shouldn’t be on the pitch. I need an explanation, I want to know why the referee on the pitch didn’t see it, but also why an experienced one in the VAR room can’t. It’s hard to justify how that isn’t a red card. It ticks all the boxes for dangerous play so it’s hard to understand why.’
Jota himself admitted that it was not a great tackle and said to BBC MOTD: ‘I also touched the ball. I also think he gets his head down. It’s just brave from him. Unfortunately it’s a foot in the face. I saw the ref could see I didn’t mean it and it’s just football. A big moment for me and the team. Scoring a last-minute winner is always a day to remember. For all the people involved here it will be a special game.’
The result means that Liverpool have now leapfrogged Tottenham into fifth in the table, with Spurs winning just one of their last seven games. Ryan Mason was left fuming after Diogo Jota escaped a red card for kicking Oliver Skipp in the head, which resulted in Skipp needing stitches, before scoring Liverpool’s late winner in their 4-3 win over Tottenham at Anfield. Curtis Jones, Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah had put Liverpool 3-0 up after 15 minutes, however Harry Kane and Son Heung-min reduced the deficit before Richarlison equalised in injury time with his first ever Premier League goal for Spurs. Just 99 seconds later, Jota latched on to a poor back pass from Lucas Moura to win the game in the 94th minute.
Mason expressed his disbelief to Sky Sports, saying: ‘Probably one of the clearest red cards I’ve seen on Oliver Skipp. I have to be careful what I see but ultimately that’s an impossible one to miss. When you talk about endangering an opponent, to draw blood from a stud when his head is 5ft in the air just baffles me. That type of decision is the difference between winning the game or not.’ He later told the BBC: ‘It endangered the opponent, Skipp needs stitches and Jota has scored the goal when he shouldn’t be on the pitch. I need an explanation, I want to know why the referee on the pitch didn’t see it, but also why an experienced one in the VAR room can’t. It’s hard to justify how that isn’t a red card. It ticks all the boxes for dangerous play so it’s hard to understand why.’
Jota himself admitted that it was not a great tackle and said to BBC MOTD: ‘I also touched the ball. I also think he gets his head down. It’s just brave from him. Unfortunately it’s a foot in the face. I saw the ref could see I didn’t mean it and it’s just football. A big moment for me and the team. Scoring a last-minute winner is always a day to remember. For all the people involved here it will be a special game.’ The result means that Liverpool have now leapfrogged Tottenham into fifth in the table, with Spurs winning just one of their last seven games.