Diogo Jota winds up Newcastle fans with social media post after controversial penalty incident

Liverpool forward Diogo Jota appears to have trolled Newcastle United supporters after being awarded a controversial penalty in Monday's 4-2 victory.

Jurgen Klopp's side moved three points clear at the top of the table following an eventful second half at Anfield.

Mohamed Salah opened the scoring four minutes after the break before Alexander Isak equalised shortly after.

Curtis Jones restored Liverpool's lead 16 minutes from time and Cody Gakpo quickly added a third. Newcastle defender Sven Botman reduced the deficit again to make it a nervy finish.

All that changed four minutes from the end when Jota went clean through against Magpies goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.

The Portugal international skipped away from Dubravka and took two touches of the ball. Seconds later, he hit the ground following a touch from Dubravka and referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot.

Sky Sports commentator Gary Neville was furious with the decision, venting: "Oh no. You can't give a penalty for that.

"He goes forward and then goes forward and then goes down. The delay is too great. It's two or three yards after the contact."

Salah stepped up to convert to ensure Liverpool started 2024 with a win.

Jota took to social media at full-time and immediately let Newcastle supporters know he wanted to win by any means necessary.

Along with a picture of him going down after Dubravka's challenge, the 27-year-old said: "Happy New Year."

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Former Premier League referee Mike Dean provided analysis on Sky Sports and admitted he was uncomfortable with the penalty decision. He added it would've been difficult for VAR to overturn due to the initial contact made.

Liverpool were worthy of their 13th Premier League win of the campaign as they look to win a second title under Klopp. They recorded a whopping 34 shots on goal, with an expected goals of 7.27. That's the highest on record since Opta started tracking the metric in 2010.

Klopp told Liverpool's official website: "I didn’t have to look at the stats because I saw it [in the game], it was really special.

It was Dubravka but it was ourselves as well. There were moments where we forced it when the technique was not great, but then there were moments when Dubravka had a top save as well.

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"We scored twice [where] we squared the ball and put it in the empty goal. We didn’t stop, that’s the most important thing.

"I said here a few weeks ago, I spoke about the atmosphere – tonight the atmosphere was exceptional and how we all took together these missed chances, that’s how an atmosphere is.

"It was not like, ‘Oh my God, what are they doing?’ And I would understand that in moments, but everybody was just really on fire: we go again, we go again, we go again. And we did, we scored four goals, which is already an outstanding number. All good."