![\"Mikel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mikel-Arteta-Arne-Slot-Anthony-Taylor-1140x641.jpg\")
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Credit: Imago<\/p>\n
![\"Harri](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Harri-Burton-profile-picture-300x300.jpg\")
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Thu 8 January 2026 22:00, UK <\/p>\n
Anthony Taylor had his hands full during a tightly fought Premier League clash between Arsenal and Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium.<\/p>\n
Jeremie Frimpong went down under pressure from Piero Hincapie<\/a> in the opening few stages, giving the referee plenty to think about as the two sides battled it out on Thursday, 8 January.<\/p>\n With Mohamed Salah away at AFCON with Egypt<\/a>, Bukayo Saka<\/a> was expected to be the livewire during the game, and while he did create chances, it was not enough for him to break the deadlock.<\/p>\n It was always going to be a difficult game to officiate, and it all really kicked off in the closing stages.<\/p>\n Taylor is amongst the best in the Premier League, but that did not mean that one of Howard Webb<\/a>\u2018s most experienced went without any mistakes.<\/p>\n Anthony Taylor sets wrong tone with early caution<\/p>\n The clash was always going to be tightly fought between the two heavyweights, but after just 12 minutes, Leandro Trossard<\/a> had already seen his name written into the referee\u2019s notebook.<\/p>\n MORE FOOTBALL INSIDER STORIES<\/p>\n Unarguably, the Belgian brought Florian Wirtz<\/a> down on the edge of Liverpool\u2019s penalty area, but with nobody ahead of him, it was hardly like the player had halted a promising counterattack.<\/p>\n Leandro Trossard avoids further pain vs Liverpool<\/p>\n Already on his yellow card, Gary Neville<\/a> accused the Belgian of a \u201cclumsy\u201d challenge on Wirtz inside the penalty area just three minutes into the second half.<\/p>\n The decision was waved away, then confirmed by VAR, but it was a moment of stupidity from the Arsenal winger, who just bundled into the opposition\u2019s playmaker without much thought.<\/p>\n Had the penalty been given, very few would have argued against it, at least none supporting the Gunners, but it was another moment which passed the referee by.<\/p>\n Gabriel Martinelli only cautioned for ridiculous headloss<\/p>\n In the final stages, Conor Bradley<\/a> was clearly hurt right next to the sidelines, and while the defender did edge himself back onto the pitch, Gabriel Martinelli<\/a>\u2018s reaction was uncalled for.<\/p>\n The Brazilian pushed the full-back, causing him even more pain, before he needed to be stretchered off, and you could see just how furious his Liverpool teammates were.<\/p>\n Martinelli certainly could have earned himself a red card, having also dropped the ball on the injured player, but he was allowed to stay on the pitch up until the final whistle.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Imago Thu 8 January 2026 22:00, UK Anthony Taylor had his hands full during a tightly fought…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[39030,220,218,708,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-360676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-anthony-taylor","9":"tag-arsenal","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Arsenal\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Leandro-Trossard-1024x683.jpg\")
Credit: Imago<\/p>\n