Steven Gerrard under pressure as Aston Villa manager (Picture: Getty)

Steven Gerrard has lamented a refereeing error that cost Aston Villa a chance to win against Manchester City on Saturday.

An out-of-form Villa fought valiantly against a dominant City side. The City team finally broke the tie thanks to Erling Haaland going free in the second half.

But to the surprise of the Villa Park players, León Bale’s goal equalized in the final minutes and gave them the point they needed.

But Gerrard’s men were frustrated that all three didn’t go after Philippe Coutinho scored a spectacular goal from the penalty spot, but it was referee Simon Hooper who blew the whistle.

Hooper stopped play because the keeper flagged Coutinho for offside, but replays revealed that the attacking midfielder was in fact onside.

With the introduction of VAR, linesmen are meant to delay calling offside if the game is on target and they make an incorrect call, but this procedure was not implemented in this case.

And the referee whistled before Coutinho cleared the shot, causing VAR to miss the goal and divert the referee onto the pitch.

As a result, Gerard became visibly angry and said: When Ezri Konsa challenged Ederson, he whistled.

“Why is he whistling?” If you have a problem, don’t use VAR. And he prematurely whistled about the Philly case.

I was looking forward to a whistle that came back at us twice. I saw a legitimate target, but it was clearly biased.

It comes after much VAR controversy in the Premier League when West Ham scored a late equalizer against Chelsea after Eduard Mendy was sent off for a foul.

Irons boss David Moyes criticized the decision as “outrageous” and “rotten”.

Additionally, Newcastle had a goal disallowed after it was ruled that Joe Willock tripped Crystal Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.

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