Worst Manchester United team in club’s history? Maybe so - but they still benefit from VAR bias

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It was frustrating but almost predictable, writes Ian Hart.

A superb Brighton and Hove Albion performance one the road, with their third successive EPL win at Old Trafford, a feat only equalled by Manchester City, yet the majority of the media coverage is more about how bad United were (to the extent their manager admitted afterwards how bas they were) – rather than how well the Albion played.

On the day that United remembered one of their favourite adopted sons, the late Denis Law, his former club were soundly beaten by a rejuvenated Albion.

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Having recorded their first league win in eight at Ipswich on Thursday night, Albion came straight out of the traps at the Theatre of Dreams and took the lead early on after Yankuba Minteh was set up by Karou Mitoma.

Yankuba Minteh scores for Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford , where Albion won 3-1 (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)Yankuba Minteh scores for Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford , where Albion won 3-1 (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Yankuba Minteh scores for Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford , where Albion won 3-1 (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

The hosts pegged them back with a 23rd minute penalty, but early in the second half Joao Pedro had a goal ruled out because of an apparent foul in the build up on Diogo Dalot.

And that’s the crux of it: while Manchester United, and Spurs for that matter, no longer sit at domestic football elite top table, it’s decisions like this that make you question if there is still a VAR bias towards the supposedly bigger clubs?

After Pedro had ‘scored’ VAR ref Craig Pawson, an official the Albion have a bit of ‘previous’ with, sent ref Peter Bankes to look again at the TV monitor.

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And what’s he going to do? Among a full house at Old Trafford, is he really going restore Albion’s lead?

Like the almost farcical scenes we had a few years ago at White Hart Lane, with goals chalked off and blatant penalties denied, the ref plays it safe and goes in the home team’s favour.

But flip it round, what about the same set of circumstances, but this time with United ‘scoring’, would he make the same decision?

Never mind – justice was eventually served, with Mitoma and then Rutter getting on the scoresheet, without any VAR intervention, and a famous Albion victory was secured … and our European ambitions are firmly back on track.

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But with the weekend’s well deserved tributes to King Denis, it did put me in mind of something a legendary local football journalist once told me about never letting the truth get in the way of a good story.

Law’s backheeled goal for City at Old Trafford in 1974 did not relegate United, whatever the result that day, Tommy Docherty’s side would still have gone down, as they’d lost to relegation rivals Birmingham City the previous midweek.

What did happen that day, and later told to me by a then United reserve team player who was standing in the tunnel that day, is that after Law did not celebrate the goal, he immediately asked to be substituted, went up to the City dressing room and asked the City kitman to dispose of his shirt so it could never become a souvenir or piece of footballing memorabilia .

RIP The King.

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