Man United 2-0 Brighton: Referee helps win it for United… again
Graham Potter is a diplomatic man. You are as likely to hear the Queen swear as you are Potter question a refereeing decision. It was telling then that the Brighton boss publicly stated his disagreement with the red card shown to Lewis Dunk in Man United 2-0 Brighton, a moment which helped turn the game in the hosts’ favour at Old Trafford.
The Albion had just gone 1-0 down after Yves Bissouma gifted Cristiano Ronaldo a goal when Dunk was sent off. He dallied too long and then miscontrolled as pass from Adam Webster, allowing Anthony Elanga to win the ball.
It was sloppy from Dunk followed by clumsiness as he then pulled Elanga to the ground. With Webster covering behind, referee Peter Bankes initially showed the Brighton captain a yellow card despite United surrounding him and urging the colour to be red.
A booking was the correct decision; it was a foul by Dunk but it had not denied a clear goal scoring opportunity. Elanga still needed to get past Webster as he made his merry way towards Robert Sanchez.
Then VAR intervened. Mr Bankes was sent to the pitch side monitor to review his decision, which meant only one outcome.
Dunk was dismissed and the Albion now faced the ominous task of trying to find an equaliser with a man disadvantage against a United squad who cost a billion pounds to put together.
Imagine for a second that Harry Maguire had made that exact same foul at the other end. Would the England international defender with a massive head have been sent off?
Actually, you do not need to imagine it. Just cast your mind back to April 2021 and the second half of Man United 2-1 Brighton 2-1 at Old Trafford instead.
Danny Welbeck was about to latch onto a low cross, front and centre of the United goal. All he had to do was tap it into the vast, unguarded net when Maguire pulled Dat Guy back to prevent him getting there.
It was a clearer case of denying a goal scoring opportunity than Dunk’s ever was, and yet on that occasion Mike Dean did not even deem it worthy of a foul, let alone a card.
How can anyone doubt that there is not one rule for Manchester United and another rule for Brighton when incidents like that occur?
When you throw in the infamous 97th minute penalty awarded after the final whistle had blown at the Amex when United escaped with a 3-2 win in September 2020, you have three Brighton v United in succession all decided by bent refereeing.
There is more chance of me winning Miss Universe 2022 than there is of the Albion getting a decision go their way against United.
And when you are battling not just world class players but referees desperate to do anything they can to help United win, it is a difficult fight to win.
Which is why the Albion deserve a lot of credit for the way they played. A final score of Man United 2-0 Brighton did not reflect the 96 minutes of football we witnessed, in which the Seagulls were the better side and worth of a point at the very least.
We know this because of the reaction of the Old Trafford crowd and the United players. Booed off at half time after being comprehensively outplayed, there was then a lap of honour at full time.
It was as if they had just won through to a Champions League final, not squeaked past 10 man Brighton. How the mighty have fallen but also, how the Albion have risen.
Without the brilliance of David De Gea, Brighton could have gone into half time two or three goals ahead. The pick of the saves from the world’s best goalkeeper came when he somehow went full stretch to claw out a powerful Jakub Moder header seven minutes before the interval.
Against any other opponent in the Premier League, that is a goal. Moder’s wretched luck meant that he had to produce a normally unstoppable header against the one goalkeeper who actually stood a chance of stopping it.
Moder had another early effort well blocked by De Gea, who also stood up well to an Alexis Mac Allister scuff. Pascal Gross and Bissouma both dragged shots wide when they maybe should have done better.
United’s only real chance of note was a gift from Brighton. Webster gave the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo who flicked to Jadon Sancho. Sanchez made a big block and then Dunk cleared Sancho’s effort from the rebound over the bar.
Hearing United booed by their own fans was quite something. Yes, they had been poor but that was largely down to how well the Albion had played.
The task for the second half seemed pretty straightforward. Do not do anything silly to give the hosts a sniff at one end of the pitch whilst putting away a chance at the other.
Brighton have never been ones for straightforward, as we all well know. Five minutes into the second half and Bissouma uncharacteristically gave the ball away.
Ronaldo was the recipient, running at an Albion defence who seemed alarmingly keen to back off. A player as good as CR7 needed no further invitation to shoot, lashing home a powerful low effort from outside the area to put United 1-0 ahead.
Minutes later and Dunk’s mistake gave the United players the opportunity they needed to demand a red card. Mr Bankes duly listened via some convincing from VAR.
Two individual errors in the space of 180 seconds had seen the Albion go from being in control to trailing 1-0 and facing the final 40 minutes with only 10 men.
Home fans were clearly expecting their side to go on and win the game comfortably now. Brighton though are made of stern stuff and it was only in the final minute that Man United wrapped up their 2-0 victory.
The Albion had to weather a storm in the immediate aftermath of the red. Sanchez acrobatically tipped over a typically towering Ronaldo header and then got in a right mess when passing the ball straight to the same player.
Ronaldo worked it to Bruno Fernandes who had to score but Sanchez somehow made amends for his cock up, producing a save from the Portuguese midfielder every bit as outrageous as the ridiculous bit of play which had gifted United the chance in the first place.
There was another reminder of referring double standards when Luke Shaw escaped a second yellow card for a clumsy challenge.
If Marc Cucurella makes that tackle having already been booked, he is joining Dunk in having an early bath. It is tiring seeing how two sets of players are treated differently based on the club they play for.
Despite the best efforts of the officials to ensure an easy night for United, Brighton had managed to keep themselves in the game following Dunk’s dismissal.
That gave the Albion a platform to finish strongly and they were desperately unlucky not to find an equaliser on two occasions in the final 10 minutes.
Moder had the first chance, which of course did not go in. His dipping effort from 30 yards had De Gea beaten all ends up, only to clatter against the top of the crossbar.
What exactly does the Polish international have to do to break his Premier League duck? Is it time for Potter to hire a priest and ask them to carry out an exorcism on Moder in the hope it ends this curse, which is the only reasonable explanation as to why he still has not scored a top flight goal for the Albion?
The second chance went to Welbeck but his header inside the six yard box from a Tariq Lamptey cross was off target. It was the sort of opportunity Dat Guy scores nine times out of 10, especially when he has such a fine record of netting against his former employees.
Seeing him fail to even trouble De Gea summed up the Albion’s evening. When the officials are looking for any excuse to help United, then you need a bit of luck to overcome the disadvantage and Brighton were lacking that.
Man United made it 2-0 with the final play of the game, a real kick in the teeth for Brighton. Mac Allister this time gave the ball away as the Albion pushed for one final sight of De Gea’s goal and Fernandes countered to wrap up the three points.
Some Brighton fans thought that Mac Allister had been fouled in the build up. There seemed little point in appealing to a set of officials who had made their position very clear, as yet another biased refereeing performance helped United to victory over the Albion once again.
