Ryan Mason hit out at the referee following the seven-goal thriller between Liverpool and Tottenham at Anfield, claiming match-winner Diogo Jota should not have remained on the pitch.

Tottenham were at serious risk of being thrashed for the second time in a week when Liverpool scored three times inside 15 minutes. Trent Alexander-Arnold picked out Curtis Jones with a brilliant cross to the back post and the midfielder finished on his left foot.

And Luis Diaz soon joined Jones by getting among the goals. Eric Dier was caught out as Mo Salah played Cody Gakpo in behind the defender and the Dutchman pulled it back for Diaz, who showed composure to volley past Fraser Forster.

Things went from bad to worse for the visitors when Cristian Romero slid in and brought down Gakpo in the penalty area, a decision Jamie Redknapp has heavily criticised.

Mo Salah stepped up and made it 3-0 by firing into the roof of the net.

Liverpool let their foot of the gas though and this allowed Spurs to grow in confidence. Son Heung-min should have scored in the 39th minute, only for his effort to be cleared by Virgil van Dijk, but Harry Kane did grab Spurs a goal a minute later. Spurs’ talisman beat Alisson with a great volley after a chip into the box from Ivan Perisic.

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Spurs had more chances after the break, with both Son and Romero hitting the post. Son joined Kane on the scoresheet in the 77th minute by beating Liverpool’s offside trap and finishing under the body of Alisson.

Incredibly, Richarlison then came off the bench to equalise for Spurs in stoppage time by connecting with a Son free-kick. Despite all of their hard work, Spurs threw away the draw by gifting Liverpool a winner a minute later.

Ryan Mason bemoans Tottenham mistakes

Lucas Moura tried to pass to Romero from a long Liverpool ball, but he inadvertently passed to Jota and the Portugal international scored to hand Jurgen Klopp’s side all three points.

During a post-match interview with BBC Radio 5 Live (via BBC Sport), interim boss Mason confirmed he and his coaches will attempt to ‘address’ the issue of gifting other teams early leads.

“To give a team a three-goal lead makes it almost impossible to come back from,” Mason admitted.

“The feeling is that we can score goals and hurt opponents. We created chances, they didn’t give us anything, we had to work for that. To equalise at the end and then give away another goal is so hard to take.

“I probably speak for everyone [when saying] that there was some fear [after conceding three goals]. To give a team goals, it’s hard to understand why. We need to address that and be better. After that we showed togetherness.

“I don’t know how many shots they had on target but it felt like we had more.

“This is the Premier League, it’s relentless and you have to be ready to fight for 95 minutes. We conceded three terrible goals and it’s hard to explain why that happened. It’s tough to take.”

Attention then turned to crucial goalscorer Jota, who was lucky not to be given a red card when catching Oliver Skipp with a high boot in the 80th minute.

Mason hit out at the referee for not sending Jota off, as it is a decision which went on to cost his team. “Honestly, it’s probably the clearest red card you will see on the football pitch,” he declared. “I need an explanation. It endangered the opponent, Skipp needs stitches and Jota has scored the goal when he shouldn’t be on the pitch.”

Meanwhile, Spurs are the frontrunners to sign one of Son Heung-min’s South Korea team-mates, according to reports.

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