Manchester United won 4-1 against Wolves courtesy of a commanding second-half display, but somehow, even that margin of victory doesn’t do justice to the game.
Bruno Fernandes tucked away a penalty to close the scoring for Man Utd, but MUTV pundit David May couldn’t believe that that was the team’s first penalty in the game.
It continues a run of puzzling decisions that have gone against Ruben Amorim’s team this season, and May was seething at full-time.
He went as far as to put forward a theory on how the ‘mental’ handball decision in the first half set the tone for the second.
Manchester United's Amad Diallo shoots at goal during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester United at Molineux on December 8, 2025
Photo by Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images
David May on ‘mental’ first-half penalty decision
It says a lot that even to get a penalty as obvious as the one that Fernandes scored, VAR had to intervene, because the referee just wouldn’t budge.
However, as per May, an even more obvious penalty was there to be given in the first half when Amad’s shot struck the arm of Emmanuel Agbadou.
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Just like the second half, United’s appeals were waved off, with the critical difference being VAR’s non-intervention this time.
Mark Clattenburg recently backed the decision, but May wasn’t having any of it, calling the decision ‘mental’.
He said: “It’s absolutely bizarre, because the one you get in the second half is exactly the same as that one. It really is incredible. VAR, they say they looked at it, that’s actually worse than the one in the second half.
“He seems to put his arm out towards it. So how on earth can you not give that as a handball? I will never know. Particularly when we see the second half, it’s mental.”
May theorised that VAR’s intervention in the second half was basically their way of apologising for their wrong decision in the first half, saying, “But maybe the one in the second half is because of the one that they didn’t give in the first half, which is wrong.”
Ruben Amorim makes it easy to give decisions against Man Utd
Ruben Amorim always makes it a point to never make his post-game interviews/press conferences about the referee, and that’s a commendable trait.
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FT graphic vs Wolves, 2025
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However, when everyone else is doing it, and you’re the only one taking the high road, it just allows the narrative to be set by your rivals.
Nobody will go as far as to say that there’s a conscious agenda against United, but it’s impossible to ignore that it becomes easy to make decisions against a team that never calls you out.
In case of 50-50 decisions, referees will always tend to take the “safer” option of giving the call against United. Otherwise, they risk the wrath of the opposing manager, warranted or not.
On the other hand, Amorim will shake it off and concentrate his energy on things they can control, which, again, is a very appreciable thing to do.
Unfortunately, when everyone else is itching to gain any advantage they can in this cutthroat industry, it leaves United climbing from underneath to make up for it.
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