Arsenal star Gabriel Magalhaes ‘insisting he heard something’ during Liverpool game as FA bring in lip reader

The Football Association will question all the Arsenal and Liverpool players involved in an ‘incident’ in Sunday’s game with Gabriel Magalhaes understood to be adamant something was said.

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Both the Brazilian and Jordan Henderson were spoken to on the pitch by referee Michael Oliver after an angry exchange following the decision to award Arsenal a spot-kick in the 76th minute, with team-mates forced to intervene to drag them apart.

After the fracas, Oliver went straight over to the dugout to inform managers Mikel Arteta and Jurgen Klopp that something had happened.

The FA released a statement shortly after the match stating that the incident would be investigated, saying: ‘We are aware of an incident that took place during the match between Arsenal and Liverpool.

‘We are in dialogue with the match officials and will review the details of the incident.’

Henderson had been scheduled to speak to the media after the match but was taken off his duties, with both the Liverpool skipper and Gabriel asked for their observations about the incident after the game by Oliver.

According to The Times, Gabriel is understood to be ‘insisting he heard something on the pitch’ which will have been included in Oliver’s report, which has been submitted to the FA.

As part of their investigation, the FA will speak to all players who were in the vicinity of the incident and are expected to bring in a lip reader to try to support the complaint – something that has happened in previous cases.

The likes of Granit Xhaka – who appeared furious with Henderson at the time – Roberto Firmino and Alisson Becker are all expected to be asked to provide eyewitness accounts given how close they were to the situation.

Gary Neville