Symptomatic of Wigan's growing dominance were the yellow cards dished out to Emiliano Insua, Lucas and Sotirios Kyrgiakos.
Kyrgiakos passed a medical before signing for the Reds ahead of Monday's home Premier League game against Aston Villa.
However, some observers contended that Fellaini was equally at fault, with television replays suggesting he connected with Kyrgiakos's shin.
Greek defender Kyrgiakos was sent off for his part in the tackle during a typically fiery derby encounter at Anfield.
The 22-year-old was injured during a controversial incident involving Sotirios Kyrgiakos during Everton's 1-0 defeat by Liverpool on 6 February.
And, apart from keeper Onur Kivrak palming away a Sotirios Kyrgiakos header, the visitors' efforts were seeing them contain Liverpool.
Kyrgiakos, who has been capped 50 times by Greece, announced the impending deal with Liverpool on his personal website on Tuesday, describing his decision to move to England as "irrevocable".
With an eye on Thursday's Europa League tie with Benfica, Reds boss Rafael Benitez opted to rest Javier Mascherano and Daniel Agger and bring in Yossi Benayoun and Sotiros Kyrgiakos.
Eardley cleared a Kyrgiakos header off the line at the other end but Liverpool were shocked as the visitors took the lead when Adam drove in a penalty after Johnson tripped Varney.
Rejigged, but not revived, and almost immediately Liverpool suffered another scare when Marcelo Moreno blocked Carragher's clearance and with the ball looping towards the goal Kyrgiakos had to head away from under the bar.
The clean sheet against Stoke was Liverpool's third consecutive shutout and came after Dalglish started with a three-man central defence of Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger to try to nullify the visitors' threat.
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And Blackburn heaped more misery on Liverpool before half-time when Benjani picked up the ball inside the box, spun Sotirios Kyrgiakos expertly and smashed a fierce effort past Reina and into the roof of the net.
It began to feel like it would not be Liverpool's day when Greece defencer Sotirios Kyrgiakos headed over the bar when he really should have done better from five yards out after being set up by Dirk Kuyt.
Liverpool were denied what appeared to be a legitimate goal when a Kyrgiakos header was only parried against Cole by Kivrak and, despite Poulsen forcing the loose ball in, the goal was disallowed for a foul on the visiting keeper as Trabzonspor held on to keep themselves firmly in the tie.
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