After Scott McTominay’s early opening goal, Villa thought to equalize via Danny Ings just after the break. However, after a lengthy VAR check that lasted nearly four minutes, Aston Villa’s equalizing goal was ruled out by referee Michael Oliver for offside.
“How long did he need?” an exasperated Gerrard wondered at the end BBC. “It took the officials 3.5 minutes to reach a decision and in the meantime have looked at two or three situations.”
Still, Gerrard does not want to blame the arbitration for the defeat. “If a decision is made after intervention by the VAR, you have to accept it. You can’t change it anyway. The easiest thing to say is it’s the arbitration’s fault, but we won’t.”