Manchester United won 4-2 against Brighton, but no fan is rushing to thank referee Anthony Taylor, who made many errors, one of which gave an ‘unfair advantage’ to Brighton, as per Mark Clattenburg.
Matheus Cunha got his maiden goal, while Bryan Mbeumo scored twice, along with a Casemiro deflected effort, to hand Man Utd a 4-2 win against their bogey team.
However, Anthony Taylor wasn’t a popular man at full-time, with errors galore from the referee, which made the game much harder for United than it should have been.
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The missed penalty on Amad was the obvious one, but former referee Mark Clattenburg, speaking exclusively to United in Focus, said a bigger advantage for Brighton came later.
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Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images
Mark Clattenburg on Brighton’s goal
The final result might not have been to Brighton’s liking, but one prediction that everyone made came true, which was Danny Welbeck scoring against United again.
Welbeck struck with an expertly curled free-kick after Anthony Taylor adjudged Patrick Dorgu to have fouled Yankuba Minteh.
Dorgu was the last man in defence, so even though Minteh had completely lost control of the ball, Taylor thought it fit to give Dorgu a booking.
That’s not where the error happened, however, as the real blunder happened just before the free-kick.
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The foul happened a long way away from the box, but, somehow, the free-kick position was nearer to where Minteh fell after sliding along the ground.
From a nearly non-shooting range, it went into a proper curler territory, which Welbeck took full advantage of.
Clattenburg said it was a clear blunder by referee Anthony Taylor, and it’s not something VAR can intervene in, giving Brighton an unfair advantage.
He said: “Brighton gained an advantage from where the free kick was taken when they scored. The foul happened some metres outside the penalty area, but the free kick was taken close to the penalty area.
“The VAR cannot intervene but should have been spotted by the match officials as clearly Brighton got an unfair advantage.”
Man Utd made Anthony Taylor’s blunders irrelevant
It is a positive sign that United were so good and clinical on the day that Taylor’s mistakes were ultimately inconsequential to the game, but that shouldn’t excuse them.
Ruben Amorim always makes it a point to never involve referees in post-game interviews, and that approach pays dividends since it doesn’t give the players a hiding place.
At the same time, it increasingly looks like it has become easier to make decisions against United because Amorim always brushes them aside.
On the contrary, giving decisions in United’s favour is a tricky proposition because intense scrutiny follows.
Nobody is accusing the referees of having a conscious bias against United, but it would be naive to think those factors don’t play a role subconsciously.
The only way to tackle it is to start calling out the poor decisions which are clear as day, like this one. These are not excuses, just facts.