Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp believes Sadio Mane’s first-half goal was wrongly ruled out for offside in his side’s enthralling 1-1 draw at Arsenal.
The two Premier League heavyweights put on a brilliant showing on Saturday evening in a high-class encounter that saw the Gunners’ Alexandre Lacazette cancel out James Milner’s opener.
It could have been a different story had Mane’s effort being allowed to stand, but the Liverpool attacker was flagged for offside when he tapped in the rebound from Roberto Firmino’s shot which had hit the post.
Mane was in an onside position when Firmino shot, but offside when Trent Arnold-Alexander had played the ball to Firmino.
Klopp said: “I think it was a goal, it should have been a goal.
“When I was a player the offside rule was different. The ball is going and one player is offside and the referee doesn’t whistle so he runs to the ball because he doesn’t think he is offside and then the referee whistles.
“It was a brilliant attack, it’s what you do on the training ground, leave one player in between the centre-halves, slightly offside but the other takes the ball.
“It’s a pity that it didn’t count, we made a few more mistakes tonight than the ref, but it would have been nice if that goal counted.”
Arsenal had previously lost to Manchester City and Chelsea this season, but gave a much better account of themselves against the Reds and deserved a point.
Klopp conceded it was an “intense” encounter but declared it a good result.
“It was very intense, Arsenal are in a very good moment, I thought we made life a bit too easy for them,” the German added.
“A point at Arsenal will always be an absolutely good result, so we take that and move on.
“It was always difficult against Arsenal (before today), it was very spectacular, today was no less spectacular just with less goals than last season. I knew before it would be difficult.”