David Sneyd

THIS WAS A game with serious potential for the conspiracy theorists among Liverpool’s support.

Or maybe even just those purists within the football fraternity who regularly look for the best deals on tinfoil.

Their hats were at the ready.

At the centre of it all – once again – was referee Darren England. “Who’s the Scouser in the blue?” Bournemouth fans sang about the match official as this game drifted away from them after two Mo Salah goals and just a little bit of controversy.

Just in case you forgot, England was the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) who played a major part in that infamous Luis Diaz goal against Tottenham Hotspur being ruled out towards the start of last season.

He also had pride of place at Stockley Park last weekend when Myles Lewis-Skelly was shown a straight red by Michael Oliver for a dangerous trip on Matt Doherty. He didn’t deem it worthy of being overturned which then resulted in a week of people lining up to deride it as the worse decision in the history of the Premier League.

It was overturned on appeal in midweek. There were also death threats towards Oliver and his family.

Now it was England front and centre.

Cue the outrage.

A penalty award to Liverpool in the first half was followed by a tight offside call ruling out a potential equaliser. Bournemouth fans’ frustrations grew when Alexis Mac Allister escaped a second yellow card for kicking David Brooks up the backside with a reckless attempt to clear a bouncing ball.

The score was still 1-0 at this point, on the hour mark, and seconds afterwards Arne Slot substituted the Argentina international.

Naturally, the home faithful were furious when his replacement, Curtis Jones, won the softest of free kicks after being brushed off the ball in the middle of the pitch.

A counter attack was on the cards but England brought play back.

Salah made the game safe on 75 minutes with his second, a sublime curling effort that rubbed salt in the wounds of Justin Kluivert’s shocking miss moments beforehand.

The in-form forward had an open goal from a slight angle on the right after Marcus Tavernier’s fizzed shot from distance rebounded off the post.

Not even England could be blamed for that one.

But there was plenty of ire coming his way earlier and you only had to throw his name into a search engine to get a sense of the discourse when Salah scored from the spot on 30 minutes.

Cody Gakpo was adjudged to have been tripped by Lewis Cook as he latched onto the ball in the box. On first glance, it looked like one of those clear instances of players colliding when the attacker gets a run on the defender and cuts across.

On second viewing it was clear that Gakpo tripped himself up.

A third look from the angle England was coming from suggested Cook made slight contact before Gakpo.

The check was swift enough and even the Bournemouth defender seemed resigned rather than raging. Not so for those online, the reactions instant and furious.

Mac Allister’s reprieve in the second half only added insult to injury and you can be sure the penalty decision will fill the airwaves until everyone gets a chance to hear what Jamie O’Hara thinks on TalkSport before moving swiftly on.

That’s what Liverpool will do now, too. They’re nine points clear at the top of the table and unless Arsenal win against Manchester City tomorrow that will surely be an insurmountable gap.

Everton, Wolves, City and Newcastle United are their opponents in the Premier League during the rest of February, and on the first of this month their travelling supporters had no issue with singing about their team lifting the trophy in May.

They believe because they have a brilliant team that has been on the front foot since the very start of the season.

That is why they have been able to take such strong advantage of City and Arsenal faltering this term.

Another clean sheet and two more Salah goals made this all feel pretty uncontroversial, despite the rancour.

It might just take a conspiracy of some sort to stop Liverpool winning a 20th title.