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PREMIER LEAGUE

Liverpool made more mistakes at Arsenal than the referee - Klopp

Sadio Mané's offside goal at Arsenal should have stood, according to Jürgen Klopp, but the Liverpool boss did not want to labour the point.

Liverpool made more mistakes at Arsenal than the referee - Klopp
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Jürgen Klopp felt Sadio Mane's disallowed goal in today's 1-1 draw at Arsenal should have stood but insisted his Liverpool players made more errors than the match officials. Alexandre Lacazette's excellent 82nd-minute finish gave the Gunners a share of the spoils in a pulsating encounter after James Milner capitalised on a Bernd Leno error to open the scoring with an hour played.

Firmino hits the post but Sadio Mané's follow-through was ruled offside against Arsenal today.
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Firmino hits the post but Sadio Mané's follow-through was ruled offside against Arsenal today.DANIEL LEAL-OLIVASAFP

Mané goal ruled out

But the main talking point occurred early in the first half, when Mané prodded into an unguarded net after Roberto Firmino's effort came back off the post. Replays showed the Senegal forward was in an offside position when Firmino latched on to Trent Alexander-Arnold's lofted pass but was level when his fellow attacker shot for goal.

"There's only one person who can answer the question and that's the linesman," Klopp told BT Sport. "For me, that's football. You have a player in a slightly offside position and the other one takes the ball. If he sees it like that, it's no offside, then the second situation is not offside. We made, I think, more mistakes than the refs but I think in this moment it would have been cool if the goal could count. It's not possible for us to come here and dominate Arsenal like we want. It's a point, that will always be a success at Arsenal."

Alexandre Lacazette wheels away after levelling for Arsenal against Liverpool
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Alexandre Lacazette wheels away after levelling for Arsenal against LiverpoolDAVID KLEINREUTERS

Provisional leaders

Klopp was disappointed with a generally lax first-half display from Liverpool, who returned to the top of the Premier League table but could end the weekend in third if Chelsea and champions Manchester City win on Sunday.

"We were not compact enough, simple as that," he said. "We have to do it better. We have to prepare the pressing better. We didn't have that often enough in the first half. With normal build-up we had situations in their box and were a proper threat all game. We were not clinical enough and did not finish as well as we would want. I was not happy with the first half."