'That's very disappointing' - Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk slammed for role in Jordan Ayew's red card

Ayew was shown two yellow cards and sent off while his team were leading 1-0 in the Premier League match. His first was for blocking a free kick as Van Dijk ended up hitting it off of him and then he was given a second booking for a foul.

Hodgson feels the attacker was hard done by on both counts, saying on TNT Sports: "Van Dijk took the opportunity to get him booked by kicking the ball at him from a few yards away. That's very disappointing. I think if you're Liverpool do not need players of that quality and status in the game to try to get an opposition player a yellow card by just kicking the ball against him.

"The second one, I thought was a good challenge. Even if it's deemed a foul, which it could be, it wasn't a yellow card. In fact, there was only one yellow card offence from our side that I would agree with and that was the one where Naouirou Ahamada at the end of the game gets frustrated and kicks a player from behind, that's a yellow card."

Ayew's sending off immediately affected Crystal Palace as Liverpool scored the equalising goal just a minute later as Mohamed Salah fired in his 200th goal for the Reds and 150th in the Premier League. Then in stoppage time Harvey Elliott struck the winning goal for the away side.

The Reds are on a four-game winning run and are six in a row without defeat. They will hope to maintain that form when they face Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium in their final Europa League group stage game on Thursday.