Steven Gerrard believes Aston Villa were victims of questionable penalty decisions as his Anfield return ended in defeat to Liverpool.
Mohamed Salah scored the only goal from the spot on 67 minutes as the Reds secured a seventh successive victory with a hard-earned Premier League triumph over the Midlanders on Saturday afternoon.
VAR Simon Beck upheld referee Stuart Attwell’s decision Salah had been upended by Tyrone Mings for the penalty.
But Gerrard believes Salah had fouled Mings earlier in the incident and suggested Villa could have later had a spot kick of their own.
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“I thought we had a decent shout for one, there was certainly contact from Alisson on Danny Ings and if you follow it there is a two-hand shove on Ollie Watkins,” said Liverpool legend Gerrard, who was making his first appearance at Anfield as an opposing manager.
“We thought that deserved the referee and VAR taking another look but it looked like they wanted to move on quickly.
“Ultimately we have lost the game in the other box which we felt was a foul on Tyrone, it feels harsh.
“There is a foul on Tyrone, it makes him stumble into Salah, it makes him feel hard-done by.
“But penalty box to penalty box Liverpool were better than us.
“I thought were were defensively sound for the majority of the game and to lose it to a penalty was hard but you could see Liverpool were a level above.”
