Monday, February 6th, 2012
In what must have left Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez breathing a sigh of relief, the FA have confirmed they will take no action against Steven Gerrard following his apparent elbow on Portsmouth’s Michael Brown during Liverpool’s victory at Anfield on Monday night. The FA spoke with referee Stuart Atwell on the incident and the referee clarified that he saw the incident at the time and spoke to Gerrard after awarding Pompey a free kick. There are also FA guidelines that state that players cannot be punished retrospectively if match officials saw the offences during games and did not take action there and then.
This frees up Steven Gerrard to face Manchester United this weekend at Old Trafford which will be crucial to Liverpool’s hopes of finishing fourth and getting into the Champions League next season. Even though the England midfielder has had a poor season by his standards, his presence on the field is often necessary for his teammates to raise their own game.
However there are fears that Gerrard might be feeling much frustration for another season of failure with Liverpool. It has been his lifelong desire to win the league title with his childhood club and Gerrard even turned down a move to Chelsea a few seasons ago in order to fulfill his ambitions. Unfortunately, recent developments on the field might be showing the strains on him. It is the second time in successive games that the club captain has been in the spotlight for infringements after he appeared to make a V-sign towards referee Andre Marriner in last week’s defeat at Wigan Athletic.
Tags: English Premier League, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Steven Gerrard, Steven Gerrard elbow