After their match against Liverpool, Mikel Arteta’s team was ‘issued sanction’ and Arsenal was ‘delivered a fine’.

Referee Anthony Taylor with Gabriel Martinelli during Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool

Over the weekend, Liverpool’s hopes of winning the Premier League title were dashed as they lost 3-1 to Arsenal. Even though Manchester City still has a game in hand, the league leader still leads the standings by two points despite a much below-average performance and some careless mistakes.

The absence of important players like Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai was not an acceptable reason. Quite simply, when Mikel Arteta’s team rose to the occasion, Liverpool did not show up or perform to the needed level. Unusual errors by Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk also did not aid the cause.

The Daily Mirror claims that Arsenal will be fined about $31k (£25k/€29k). The reason for this is that Arteta’s team received six bookings from referee Anthony Taylor, which is sufficient to result in an FA fine for insubordination.

Benjamin White, William Saliba, Gabriel, Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, and other starters were all cautioned. Halftime substitute Jakub Kiwior received a warning as well. As for Liverpool, they were only booked Joe Gomez and Darwin Núñez; Ibrahima Konaté received two yellow cards and was substituted in minute 88.

Regarding the post-match officiating, Jürgen Klopp stated, “A lot of things were against us today.” “Bernie Silva and Mohamed Salah got into a wrestling match, and this referee gave me the red card against Man City.” The same thing happened to [Diogo] Jota today, but [I] wasn’t given the red card.

“The decision to hold [Kai] Havertz on Konaté for the first yellow card is ridiculous. After Havertz is knocked down, Konaté is given a yellow card by the referee. Gabriel Magalhães treats Núñez in the same way without showing a yellow card.

Liverpool.com states: “To be fair, Klopp wasn’t implying that either. The referee was definitely not the reason Liverpool lost on Sunday.” Rather, the focus should be on the performance. Arsenal was just better. Perhaps Taylor could have avoided handing Konaté’s second yellow, but it wouldn’t have altered the outcome.