Jack Grealish furiously confronts referee after Liverpool loss as Jordan Pickford steps in

A furious Jack Grealish let his emotions get the better of him in the aftermath of the Merseyside derby, where he was shown a yellow card after confronting the match officials alongside the Everton manager, David Moyes.

Liverpool made it five wins from five in the Premier League so far this term with a 2-1 win courtesy of goals from Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike. But tempers flared after the final whistle, with Grealish talking himself into a yellow card from referee, Darren England.

Grealish's England team-mate Jordan Pickford intervened to ensure Grealish didn't get himself into even more trouble as Moyes also made his feelings clear to the officials.

Speaking post-match, Grealish shared some of his grievances with TNT Sports, saying: "It was a bit frustrating in the second half because they were trying to slow the game down at times. I've never seen a player in my whole life get booked for taking a quick free-kick. I don't know where that rules come in. Even the stoppage time, what was it, three minutes and one minute? Come on, I've never seen that in the Premier League in the last two or three years."

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When he was then asked if there were a few frustrations with the officials, Grealish added: "Yeah of course. Listen, I get sometimes you want to let the game go. But then you can't not give something for us and then two seconds later one of their defenders gets touched in the back, goes down and he gives it. I'm just like, you can't do that. I get it, you come to these stadiums and the crowd are on you and I think they feel like they've got to give it.

"But like I said, I think Kiernan [Dewsbury-Hall] is now on four yellows, he's only got one more [before a ban] and he gets a yellow today for taking a quick free-kick. We want to get the game going, we're losing the game. I've never heard of that in my life."

The champions went in 2-0 up at the break and looked comfortable before Idrissa Gueye halved their lead on the hour mark. That set up a frantic finale but Everton were unable to find an elusive equalisier as Arne Slot's men maintained their 100 per cent start to the new campaign.

Match of the Day pundit and former Toffee, Wayne Rooney, was impressed with Everton's performance and felt that they were the better team overall. He said: "Everton started off poorly. Liverpool obviously took advantage of that with the opening two goals.

"After that I think Everton were probably the better team. They just lacked cutting edge, intensity and some aggression. The second-half changes were positive but should have been made earlier."

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