Howard Webb 'cost' Liverpool an FA Cup spot: Liverpool icon

Arsenal vs Liverpool – FA Cup

John Aldridge has criticised Howard Webb after he failed to give Liverpool a penalty as they crashed out of the FA Cup with a 2-1 defeat at Arsenal.

Webb had already given the Reds a penalty when Luis Suarez went down under a challenge from Lukas Podolski and had to make a second decision a few minutes later, instead turning away appeals after Suarez was again brought down by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Aldridge wasn’t happy about that decision and used his column in the Liverpool Echo in which to vent his fury, with Webb having also made some curious decisions in Liverpool’s defeat to Chelsea in December.

Aldridge in column  for the Liverpool Echo argued: “I called it before the Chelsea game and I called it before the Arsenal match at the weekend: Webb gets too many big decisions wrong.

“He gave us a penalty when Suarez was clipped by Podolski but then, for reasons nobody in this country can understand, he failed to award a spot-kick when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain clattered into Liverpool’s No.7.

“It was more of a penalty than the one he gave!

“I thought Brendan Rodgers showed real restraint and composure to describe the incident as mildly as he did, especially on the back of the Chelsea debacle less than two months earlier.

“When he refs us, we do not get the big, big decisions and with Liverpool chasing at least the top four, we must hope he does not officiate our games between now and the end of the season.

“Howard Webb costs us, plain and simple.”

Liverpool have made 1041 clearances in the Premier League this season. Only West Ham (1052) have made more.