Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes that his side should have been awarded a penalty for a "clear handball" in their 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Saturday night.
The Anfield encounter pitted the league-leading Gunners against the third-placed Reds, who had been overtaken by Aston Villa courtesy of the Lions' stalemate with Sheffield United on Friday evening.
Klopp's side were caught cold with just four minutes on the board, though, as Arsenal's explosive start was rewarded when Gabriel Magalhaes headed home from Martin Odegaard's free kick.
Liverpool were only behind for 25 minutes, though, as a sumptuous cross-field pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold found Mohamed Salah, who comfortably evaded the attention of Oleksandr Zinchenko and fired home into the roof of the net after cutting inside onto his left foot.
However, the Reds felt that they should have been awarded a penalty for handball before the half-time whistle blew, as the ball clearly struck Odegaard's arm inside the penalty area, but their appeals were waved away.
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Odegaard appeared to be using his arm for leverage as he slipped on the turf, and the VAR room also concluded that the Arsenal captain was trying to move his arm towards his body rather than away from it.
Chris Kavanagh's on-field decision and the subsequent VAR review did not go down well with Klopp, who also took a swipe at former referee Dermot Gallagher, claiming that the 66-year-old will find a way to defend the officials' conclusion in his Ref Watch segment on Sky Sports News.
Speaking to the media after the game, Klopp said: "I think we all agree it was handball. I always wait until Mr Dermot explains it to me the next day what's really the case. He will find a way to explain to me that it wasn't really handball. For me, it was a clear handball."
The penalty call was just one of a plethora of moments which sparked a fiery Anfield crowd into life after Klopp criticised a lack of atmosphere in his side's 5-1 EFL Cup win over West Ham United in midweek.
The Reds boss got exactly the reaction he was looking for from the home crowd, hailing the Merseyside contingent as "outstanding" and crediting them with creating a "brutal" atmosphere for Arsenal to play in.
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"Anfield was outstanding tonight, I think everybody felt it. It was brutal. It was really nice to see what we can do all together," Klopp said. "They had the better start, we came super back in the game.
"The reaction to the 1-0 was fantastic. We were super-intense, nearly too intense; we tried massively to influence from outside that we have to calm down in moments, that we have to mix it up a little bit better. That's what we did, created really good moments with that.
"I saw top teams, that's what I saw. What does that say about [Manchester] City, Tottenham [Hotspur], Aston Villa? Nothing. They are top teams as well, and others as well who maybe have a little bit less points but are there as well.
"I just saw two really good football teams, a really good game, super-intense. Top, top, top moments for us; could have won, maybe should have won. In all the interviews I had so far, I forgot completely Trent's [shot off the] crossbar. That's why I said, 'I'm not sure, they could have [won]' but with that chance we should have won the game."
Liverpool remain one point adrift of Arsenal in the table, but they have risen back into second place above Villa on goal difference ahead of a Boxing Day trip to Burnley.
Klopp also provided an update on Kostas Tsimikas and Luis Diaz after both players were forced off in the stalemate, confirming that the former is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a collarbone injury.
Ben Knapton
