Darren England beware as Arsenal injustice knows no bounds after Salah brace for LiVARpool

Liverpool beat Bournemouth 2-0 in a game entirely devoid of controversy. But that didn’t stop the Arsenal fans crying foul.
As the cameras focused on Darren England sharing a joke with Mohamed Salah while the players prepared to kick-off the second half, rather than thinking how nice it was to see two professionals enjoying a moment of levity in the midst of their highly pressurised jobs, our immediate reflection – on the back of a week in which the abuse of referees has been a hot topic – was “don’t do that, mate”.
Liverpool were 1-0 up courtesy of a Salah penalty after Lewis Cook was penalised for a trip on Cody Gakpo, with David Brooks later denied an equaliser for Bournemouth in the first half after a VAR review deemed Milos Kerkez to be offside in the build-up.
The Premier League Match Centre, an X account that ‘provides information directly from Match Centre, the VAR Hub and PGMOL experts’, confirmed both decisions were correct, as it always does, with the rare backtracking typically taking place long after the fact. But – and this is important given the extraordinary degree to which knickers were twisted on social media – Gakpo was tripped and Kerkez was offside. Enter Arsenal fans.
They were ready for any hint of controversy having sussed out that England was the VAR who didn’t intervene when Michael Oliver sent Myles Lewis-Skelly off on Saturday. ‘Just give LiVARpool the league’ was one of the more PG responses to The Great Injustices that occurred at the Vitality Stadium.
There were also zoomed in images of a Liverpool toe being slightly ahead of the VAR-drawn offside line, which would have had some merit in setting the well-fuelled corruption beacons alight had Kerkez’s foot not been a long way beyond that.
Alexis Mac Allister not getting a second yellow card after a challenge we confess to have missed, presumably because it wasn’t worthy of note, and Trent Alexander-Arnold not conceding a penalty for handball when the ball hit his chest were the other moments of teeth-grinding frustration for the Gooners.
England will hopefully be spared the abhorrent abuse Oliver received, or at least the level of it, more by virtue of this game not being televised on home shores than his decisions being correct, as the abusers need no invitation to cry foul over any decision that goes against them or in favour of a rival, with the accuracy of those decisions apparently now immaterial to the nuclear-level admonishment.
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As banana skins go, this was a big one for Liverpool despite them winning 11 of their last 12 games against Bournemouth. The hosts, fresh from their 5-0 thumping of Nottingham Forest, are unbeaten since November 23, and only Forest – who have played a game more after their absurd win over Brighton – have picked up more than their 25 points in that time, with Andoni Iraola’s side joining the race for Champions League qualification.
And they had enough chances to get something from the game. Antoine Semenyo hit the corner of post and bar in the first half and forced one of several smart saved from Alisson, while we’re not quite sure how Justin Kluivert missed the target when the ball fell to him after Marcus Tavernier’s delightful curled effort came off the post.
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Salah scored his second of the game and his 21st in the Premier League this season to take him to sixth in the all-time list above Frank Lampard on 178. It was a very Salah goal too, as he curled the ball into the far corner past Kepa Arrizabalaga with his left foot.
But members of The Arsenal Delusion Brigade will claim That Might Not Have Happened If VAR Hadn’t Gifted Liverpool The Lead Or Denied Bournemouth It, with Darren England added to the referee sh*tlist that looks set to grow to the point where there are no honest referees left to officiate their games or any others that directly or even indirectly affect their team.