Unai Emery bemoans Aston Villa penalty call in Liverpool defeat

Villa were trailing to Darwin Nunez’s opener when Conor Bradley appeared to pull Pau Torres’ shirt in the box.

But neither referee David Coote or video assistant Paul Tierney deemed it a foul and the Reds then went on to double their lead when Mo Salah scored late on.

Villa had earlier seen appeals for a penalty waved away when Ollie Watkins went down under a challenge from Ibrahima Konate.

Emery said: “I only watched the Pau Torres action. With VAR, for me it was clearly a penalty because he pulled the shirt of Pau Torres. 

“I know that in Europe this is a penalty, but here in England they want to use VAR … I don’t know exactly where. In this situation it was clear. 

“I always respect the decisions of referees and I accept it, but for me, when I watched it, with VAR it was a clear penalty. 

“Of course, it was a very important moment in the game because if we could have the chance to shoot the penalty, maybe the match would have been different. 

“I accept the result and the referee's decision. I don’t agree and then with the players I am confident we will recover and again find our way for the season.”

Villa were masters of their own downfall as Nunez opened the scoring when Liverpool broke from a corner. Salah’s goal also came from a rapid counter after a mistake by Diego Carlos.

The defeat was Villa’s fourth in a row in all competitions, their worst run since Emery took charge two years ago.

They also have injury concerns with Jacob Ramsey coming off with a hamstring problem while Boubacar Kamara also complained of pain after the match.

Emery said: “Obviously the result is not good. How we played in 90 minutes trying to be competitive to get points here, it was more or less the plan we had. 

“We conceded two transitions. We knew before that they were strong in transitions with the players they have. Even like that they did it.”