Arne Slot has suggested referee John Brooks wanted to prove he would not be intimidated by the Anfield crowd during Liverpool‘s 2-1 win over Chelsea.
Sunday’s game featured several VAR checks including an incident in the sixth minute where Tosin Adarabioyo was shown a yellow card for pulling back Diogo Jota, who threatened to burst through the Chelsea defence just past the halfway line.
Liverpool took the lead after Mohamed Salah converted a 29th-minute penalty, awarded for Levi Colwill’s challenge on Curtis Jones but they were denied a second spot-kick on the stroke of half-time.
Brooks initially pointed to the spot after Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez collided with Jones in the box but was sent to review the decision by VAR official Michael Oliver and subsequently decided no penalty should be given.
Nicolas Jackson equalised for Chelsea on 48 minutes — a goal that was deemed offside on the field but overturned on VAR review — before Salah crossed for Jones to score the winner on 51 minutes.
Liverpool hung on to secure a victory which returned them to the top of the Premier League but Slot suggested they may have enjoyed a more comfortable afternoon had the officials adopted a different approach.
Asked about the Anfield atmosphere, the ex-Feyenoord boss said: “The fans were really important for us. I don’t know if this is something people say in England but they said at my former club, which was also an impressive stadium, that ‘yeah, the referees are a bit impressed by the crowd and that’s why you get the easy decisions in your favour.’
“But today showed no matter how loud the fans were, the referee just wanted to show that he was able not to give the decisions he had to make. So it didn’t help us with the referee but it definitely helped our players because they had to work so hard.
“If every time they cheer so hard for you if you make a block tackle, or Darwin [Núñez] sprinted back, or all these moments, that definitely helps you mentally. They were really important for the players but unfortunately, it didn’t happen what all people always think that Anfield always gives you easy penalties.
“Is that true or not? Today, it showed again that it wasn’t.”
Slot described Sunday’s win over Chelsea as the most difficult of his tenure to date.
“Many other games were hard but this might have been the hardest maybe because of the amount of quality players they have and the structure they have,” the Dutchman said. “We had to fight really hard to get this one over the line.”
