Manchester United's title challenge looks to be on the rocks after another disappointing result this afternoon. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer's side put in a fairly abject performance in the 1-1 draw with West Brom, failing to cause too many problems for the league's 19th-placed side.
Bruno Fernandes' fantastic goal aside, United seemed to lack any real quality in the final third. It was perhaps telling that the closest they came to making a breakthrough came via Harry Maguire.
The defender would rattle the post with a header deep into injury time, while he thought he had won a penalty earlier in the second half. However, the decision was overturned after a VAR review. That was certainly the right call, with Maguire in an offside position when the original cross was played while there was also minimal contact.
PENALTY OVERTURNED! 🔄
Craig Pawson consults the monitor and decides that Ajayi hasn't made sufficient contact for Maguire to go to ground. No penalty.
📺 Watch on Sky Sports PL
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📲 Download the @SkySports app! pic.twitter.com/TUtycSFrxz— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 14, 2021
Despite this, the England defender was not happy with the decision.
Speaking after the game, he said that his side were seeing a lot of decisions go against them at the minute, something he feels is down to comments made by the likes of Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp, both of whom questioned the amount of penalties United had been awarded over the last two seasons.
"I was so certain it was a penalty. It seems the decisions at the moment are going against us"
Harry Maguire 𝖜𝖆𝖘 𝖓𝖔𝖙 happy with the big decisions at the Hawthorns pic.twitter.com/6KKPq34zzp— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 14, 2021
I was so confident that it was going to be given as a penalty but it seems like the decisions at the moment are going against us.
But we’ve got to be doing more to win the game. We can’t be relying on VAR decisions, we’ve got to do more to win the game.
To be fair, there were two genuine reason not to award the penalty so we're not sure why Maguire felt so aggrieved.
Graeme Souness certainly wasn't having the United man's argument. Speaking on Sky Sports, he said that only was Maguire offside, but he had also dived to attempt to fool the referee. The Scot would go on to say that United's overall performance had been incredibly poor.
🗣️ "He goes to ground as if he has been hit with a baseball bat."
Graeme Souness felt that Manchester Utd captain Harry Maguire dived to win the penalty against West Brom which was eventually overturned via VAR. pic.twitter.com/mtv6RS4HZx— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 14, 2021
He said he thinks it’s a penalty, it’s not enough to bring him down the way he goes down.
He throws himself to the ground. It’s not a penalty...
This is such a bad result for Manchester United. Maguire has just said it’s a difficult place to come, West Brom have won one game at home against the bottom team, that’s a difficult place to go if you’re second or third in the league?
West Brom had the better chances. That is an exceptionally poor performance and result for Manchester United, when you think they’ve got a chance of putting the pressure on Manchester City. Nah.
Manchester City now sit seven points ahead of United in the league having played a game less, suggesting that we could be in for a very anti-climatic title over the coming months.
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