Liverpool are top of the league once again. The Reds did enough to beat David Moyes’ in form hammers at the weekend, putting themselves clear at the top as Everton crumbled once again. It was a professional win but discussion about the game has bizarrely focused on one player in particular. James Pearce has slammed critics of Mo Salah as ‘sinister’.
Mo Salah pen
Liverpool were behind early on against West Ham. The Reds were one down after just 10 minutes when Pablo Fornals rifled into the bottom corner following Joe Gomez’s tame header out.
Scores were levelled when Mo Salah won and scored a penalty. The game was won when Diogo Jota fired past Lukasz Fabianski following Xherdan Shaqiri’s inch perfect past.
Despite the exquisite Shaq/Jota linkup, many pundits have focused on criticising our Egyptian King for the manner in which he went down for the penalty.
Sure, it was a touch theatrical but it had to be. The man was fouled, he was kicked by a clumsy defender. If he didn’t go to ground he wouldn’t have got the penalty he was entitled to.
James Pearce on Salah critics
Speaking on the Red Agenda Podcast, respected Liverpool journalist James Pearce hit out at critics of Mo Salah after a weekend full of pundits slamming the player for how he went down in the penalty incident:
“No doubt whatsoever [it was a penalty]. I’ve found some of the fallout from Saturday utterly bizarre and a bit sinister as well to be honest.
“I thought Moyes’ comments after the game were completely out of order. I can’t see how on earth anybody could possibly complain about that decision.
“If Moyes has got some complaints he should be directing them at Masuaku because it’s a horrendous piece of defending. There’s no need to make such a rash challenge – he boots the back of Salah’s ankle.
“Maybe Salah goes down a bit theatrically but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a foul, it’s not even debatable. I do wonder whether Salah gets treated differently to other players in the Premier League.”
What RTK has to say
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves James.
The Egyptian King was well within his rights to go down, how anybody can be claiming it isn’t a penalty is just beyond us.
People keep using the ‘contact sport’ argument as if the man was shoulder barged – he was kicked in the ankle as he tried to control the ball. It is such a blatant foul.
This agenda against Salah has to stop some time or another.
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