Premier League issue official statement after Manchester United vs Brighton incident

Manchester United had a big shout for a penalty in the first half of their Premier League match against Brighton at Old Trafford.

Brighton had the better of the first 10 minutes but United started to force the pressure. On 20 minutes United wing back Diallo forced his way into the box and tangled with Brighton left Maxim De Cuyper.

The Belgium stuck out a reverse leg which clipped Diallo and sent the United man tumbling to the ground. It looked a penalty at first glance but replays showed that De Cuyper just clipped the ball before making contact with Diallo.

“That was what saved him.” said Sky Sports Gary Neville. “It’s dangerous to go in like that but he just clips the ball.”

On field referee Anthony Taylor waved away the appeals and his initial call was confirmed to be the correct as VAR officials Michael Oliver checked in the back ground.

The Premier League Match Day Centre posted: "The referee’s call of no penalty to Manchester United was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that De Cuyper played the ball."

‘How has that not been given?’

However, BBC pundit Paul Robinson disagreed: “How that's not been given I do not know. That should be a penalty to Manchester United.

“That's a mistake from the referee. I'm not having it at all [there being a touch on the ball by Maxim De Cuyper].”

United fans were though soon cheering as the hosts opened the scoring on 24 minutes as Matheus Cunha netted from outside the box.

Ruben Amorim’s team made it 2-0 10 minutes later as Caemiro’s long range effort took a massive deflection off Yasin Ayari.