Virgil van Dijk and Declan Rice square up after Arsenal refuse to kick ball out for Liverpool injury
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Virgil van Dijk and Declan Rice became embroiled in a tense confrontation during a fiercely contested Premier League clash between Liverpool and Arsenal, after a controversial incident involving Liverpool’s Jeremie Frimpong. The Dutch wing-back went down in the Arsenal penalty area under relatively minimal contact from defender Piero Hincapie, rolling his ankle awkwardly as he fell and immediately appearing to be in significant pain.
As Frimpong lay on the turf in the box, Liverpool players appealed both for a penalty and for play to be stopped so he could receive treatment. Referee Anthony Taylor allowed the game to continue and Arsenal, instead of putting the ball out, launched a counter-attack up the other end of the pitch. Liverpool’s players were incensed by the decision not to halt play, protesting aggressively as Arsenal pushed forward.
When the move eventually broke down, tempers flared. Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk and Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice squared up to one another, exchanging heated words in the aftermath of the incident. Team-mates from both sides, along with referee Taylor, quickly intervened to separate the pair before the confrontation escalated further.
Frimpong, meanwhile, finally received medical attention from Liverpool’s physios. Slow-motion replays of the incident showed his ankle bending in a worrying fashion, prompting concern that his match – and potentially his immediate future – could be over. Despite the severity of how it looked, the 25-year-old surprised many by eventually getting back to his feet, leaving the pitch briefly before jogging back on to continue.
Frimpong had appealed to Taylor for a penalty, claiming he had been fouled by Hincapie, but the level of contact was deemed insufficient to warrant a VAR intervention. Later in the match, Liverpool saw another penalty shout turned down when Florian Wirtz went down under a challenge from Leandro Trossard. VAR did review that incident, yet still upheld Taylor’s original decision not to award a spot-kick, adding to Liverpool’s sense of frustration on a fiery evening.