Scott Parker couldn’t hide his pride, even after Burnley’s gut-wrenching loss to Brentford. He didn’t get too deep into the late VAR drama; either he just didn’t want to.

Honestly, that doesn’t even cover how wild this match was. Drama everywhere. Burnley had not one but two goals chalked off. They clawed their way back from three goals down, somehow levelled it at 3-3, only to see all that hard work undone at the very end.

When someone asked Parker if he felt robbed by those bizarre VAR calls (which dragged the game out forever), he just shrugged. “I’m not sure,” he said.

“We’ve had some tough results this year, and I’ve talked about disappointment and frustration before. I’ve probably even said I was proud of the team when we got a result.

“But today? Today, I just feel pure pride. More than ever, actually. I’m proud of these players, of everything they did out there.

“Sure, we picked our game apart. We were harsh at halftime, and we needed to be. We started slow. We were soft in too many moments. But the way this group responded – their spirit, their determination, the way they fought back – I can’t help but feel proud.”

After the final whistle, Burnley fans were furious. Ashley Barnes thought he’d equalised, but VAR ruled it out for an accidental handball. Watching the replays, nobody could say for sure whether the ball even touched his arm.

Parker didn’t have much to say on the incident. “Honestly, I haven’t even seen it back,” he said. “I caught it on the big screen. It looked like his hand was by his side.

“I don’t want to go too far; someone will quote me, and maybe I’m wrong, but it just feels so, so harsh.

“We scored five goals in about an hour, which is incredible when you think about it.

“We got ourselves back in it. But this is the world we’re in now. Everyone’s chasing perfection, whether it’s the game or just a photo you take of yourself. That’s football now.

“So, the first goal’s offside by a tiny margin. That’s just how it is. When you have the technology, you can always fall back on it. Well, it’s the correct decision. ’ Depends what you want, really. Yeah, it’s disappointing.”

Nuno Espirito Santo didn’t hold back after West Ham’s 5-2 loss at Anfield. For him, it all came down to set pieces. Defending them just wasn’t good enough, and that’s what cost his team against Liverpool.

The score looks brutal, but the match itself was actually pretty tight. Liverpool’s first three goals? All from corners. By halftime, West Ham was already chasing a three-goal deficit, and let’s be honest, that first half pretty much sealed their fate.

“It’s tough to explain, especially that first half,” Nuno told Sky Sports. “We played well, we had our chances, we passed the ball around, and we defended alright until those set pieces. That decided everything.”

He sounded frustrated, but there was some hope mixed in. “It’s disappointing because we’ve been working hard, and you can see we’ve improved. In the second half, the players gave it a real go and created problems for Liverpool. We just need that bit of luck to swing our way.”

He made sure to shout out to the fans, too. “Our supporters were brilliant today. This is where we are right now. There’s plenty to build on, but also a lot to fix before the next match. No matter what, we’ll stick together and keep fighting. The team is growing; everyone understands what’s at stake.”

For Liverpool, Alexis Mac Allister found the net for the second week in a row. Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk, and Cody Gakpo all got on the scoresheet too, and West Ham’s Axel Disasi accidentally put the final nail in the coffin with an own goal.

After the match, Mac Allister was upbeat about Liverpool’s push for a top-five finish and a Champions League spot. “We could’ve scored even more, and, yeah, they had a few chances too,” he said. “But honestly, I’d rather focus on the positive; we got five goals, that’s great.”

He admitted there’s still work to do. “We know we need to tighten up at the back. Sometimes we leave ourselves too open. But hey, we won. The gap’s smaller now with Aston Villa and the teams above us. We’re happy, and we’ll keep trying to get better.”