(Video) Amadou Onana avoids red card despite neck grab on Alexis Mac Allister | OneFootball

Saturday night went just about perfectly for Liverpool – a win, a clean sheet and a convincing performance.

Mo Salah’s 250th goal for the Reds and a second-half Ryan Gravenberch strike secured the Premier League champions’ first domestic win in six weeks and elevated them to third in the table overnight, leaving Kopites able to enjoy their best night’s sleep in quite a while!

However, if Arne Slot were to have one complaint over how this match went, it’d be about an incident which warranted (but didn’t receive) a red card for Aston Villa’s Amadou Onana.

Onana seen grabbing Mac Allister around the neck

As the visitors prepared to take a corner kick in the 73rd minute, there was all sorts of pushing and shoving going on inside the Liverpool six-yard box, with Stuart Attwell forced to intervene and restore order.

TV cameras from behind Giorgi Mamardashvili’s goal showed the Belgian midfielder grabbing Alexis Mac Allister by the throat, with the Argentine going to ground in the process.

That indiscretion earned Onana a yellow card from the referee, although one might wonder whether VAR should’ve intervened to recommend a more severe sanction for the former Everton man.

Image via @LiverpoolZNE on X

Onana fortunate to avoid a red card

We don’t want to see players getting sent off wrongly, but the 24-year-old could’ve had few complaints if Attwell had given him his marching orders for that incident.

When you grab a player anywhere above the shoulders, you’re asking for trouble, no matter how minimal the contact might be. Mac Allister’s reaction might’ve been melodramatic, but he’d have every right to feel aggrieved that Onana stayed on the pitch for his misdemeanours.

The sense of incredulity was amplified a few minutes later when Dominik Szoboszlai and Unai Emery were both booked for a harmless disagreement by the Villa technical area. How that warranted the same sanction from Attwell as the Belgian’s neck grab seems baffling.

Thankfully it didn’t have any bearing on the final result, with a sense of relief enveloping Anfield at the full-time whistle after a well-deserved victory for the Reds!

You can view Onana grabbing Mac Allister by the neck below, via @LiverpoolZNE on X: