Joe Gomez is shown preparing for a throw-in for Liverpool, alongside a smaller picture of Tottenham boss Roberto De Zerbi.
Joe Gomez took a strange approach vs Tottenham.Imago/Sky Sports

Joe Gomez branded 'unacceptable' for incident in Liverpool win vs Tottenham

Danny Wright

Head of Editorial AUTHORITY enior editorial lead managing the daily newsroom output across 11 sites. Daniel oversees the correspondents and the specialist pundit output. FOCUS Newsroom management, breaking news, and high-level editorial quality control. THE BRIEF Former correspondent Daniel has risen through the editorial ranks at Breaking Media to run the daily newsroom, coordinating stories from live reporting to final publication. He ensures that every expert-led report is executed with total accuracy and speed.

Published on

Joe Gomez should have been reprimanded by referee Andy Madeley for exploiting the rules in Liverpool's 3-1 win over Tottenham on Tuesday night.

That's according to former PGMOL general manager Keith Hackett, who was less than impressed by the Liverpool defender's first-half antics.

Spurs were dumped out of the Carabao Cup at Anfield on Tuesday thanks to a 3-1 defeat to Andoni Iraola's Liverpool.

Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai were all on the scoresheet for the home side on Merseyside, while Conor Gallagher managed a goal for Spurs.

Though the match went by without any controversy, there was one moment in the first half that raised eyebrows.

And Gomez was at the centre of it.

Why Joe Gomez has been called 'unacceptable'

Around the half-hour mark, Liverpool won a throw-in in an attacking area of the pitch.

With pitchside towels now banned due to them holding up play too much, Gomez had to think outside of the box in order to dry the ball so that he could throw the ball further into the box.

So what did the Liverpool player do? He asked the ballboy to dry the ball on his tracksuit while he was sat down beside the pitch.

Former Premier League referee Hackett didn't see the funny side.

"Frankly this is unacceptable," Hackett told Tottenham News.

"I am surprised that the referee did not intervene."

Joe Gomez is shown preparing for a throw-in for Liverpool, alongside a smaller picture of Tottenham boss Roberto De Zerbi.
Forget Richarlison: Three Tottenham players also unhappy under Roberto De Zerbi

Tottenham's defeat to Liverpool in stats

The headline stat really for Tottenham is that they finally scored a goal against a Premier League side.

However, they're yet to win against a top-flight team this season in five attempts, with their only victory in all competitions coming against Charlton in the second round of the Carabao Cup.

Against Liverpool, Tottenham did look capable in spells.

Stats show that Spurs had 56 per cent of the possession and created three big chances to score as opposed to Liverpool's two.

De Zerbi's side peppered Liverpool's goal with 17 shots, with six of them being on target.

Giorgi Mamardashvili was forced into making some good saves in order to stop Tottenham from at least getting a penalty shoot-out.

However, Spurs were ultimately undone by some seriously good goals by the home side, while simultaneously failing to take advantage of their strong spells throughout the second half.

www.tottenhamhotspurnews.com