In the second half, VAR looked at a possible handball from the Chelsea summer signing, but it opted against sending the on-field referee to the monitor despite calls from the Liverpool side.
At first glance, Neville thought that Nicolas Jackson was in trouble and VAR would intervene, but upon second viewing, he felt that his hands being close to his body helped his cause, as he told Sky Sports Premier League (13/08/23).
As play continued, cameras then picked up Jackson’s reaction to all of that and how the 22-year-old thought that the ball didn’t even hit his hand, and instead, hit him in the chest.
Well, one thing is for certain, the ball did hit him in the hand, it was just a case of if he was making his body bigger, which doesn’t seem to be the case or if it was intentional, which once again, it wasn’t.
Nonetheless, whilst on commentary duty, Neville and Jamie Carragher issued the following response to Jackson’s reaction to his handball.
“Well, he is just lying there,” laughs Neville after Jackson suggests the ball hit him in the chest, not the hand.
Carragher then added: “He is every footballer ever.”
Chelsea and Liverpool – draw a fair result
In the end, the points were shared between the two, and in truth, it was probably deserved without any real talking points.
There was a sense of real energy in both teams’ play, with a fair number of chances being created.
Now it is just a case of trying to match that for these opening few months because it’s paramount that they both get off to a strong start.