The Red Devils took the early lead through a controversial penalty. Mike Dean pointed to the spot when Chancel Mbemba, looking over his shoulder, realized Marouane Fellaini had created a bit of space to possibly head in a cross and reached backwards, flailing desperately. Fellaini’s header, as it frequently does, then found an opponent’s body rather than the back of the net. Dean adjudged it a deliberate handball despite one BT analyst–the one not named Glen–suggesting his arm was extended in the natural act of leaping and his back was to Fellaini, making it impossible for him to deliberately handle the ball.
Despite making the correct, if debatable, call, Dean wasn’t through with controversy. Not by a long shot. First, he denied Newcastle a clear first-half penalty. Then, after the break, awarded one to the Magpies, booking Chris Smalling in the bargain following a tussle in the box between the center back and Aleksandar Mitrović. While my favorite BT analyst this time heartlily supported Dean and attacked Smalling’s poor marking, it seems to me a player should forfeit any claim for a penalty when he has one hand on the back of a defender’s head and the other around his throat. As Don Henley sang in Victim of Love, “I could be wrong, but I’m not.”
On the whole, though, Dean’s gaffes cancelled each other out, and the Mancunians must bear the blame for dropping two points alone. They came into the match having allowed just seventeen goals in the league, second best in the Prem, one behind Tottenham and fronting Arsenal by the same margin. But, as they showed in their final Champions League match v Wolfsburg, Louis van Gaal’s charges cannot strike a balance between aggression and solid defending. For them, it’s one or the other.
A two-nil lead evaporated and so did a three-two advantage. As game as Toon proved on the night, the match could have been put away on several occasions.
Fellaini, without any interference this time, headed a beautiful cross directly into Tim Krul’s arms. As mentioned here and elsewhere, this is a disturbing trend from the Belgian chia pet. Someone really must explain the concept of scoring to him.
The current resident of Niche à Chien Van Gaal provided his side with a spark which quickly led to Wayne Rooney–likely upset at being shown up by the departed Lingard–scoring from the top of the eighteen after Newcastle failed to control a deflected shot. BT’s camera quickly focused on the visitor’s bench, where LvG could be seen gleefully writing in his notebook. Ladbrokes currently has “12/1/16–Rooney finally scores from run of play” at even money as the most likely entry. The goal occurred just as the game clock reached seventy-nine minutes, and as unlikely as Roo finding the target may have seemed to all, the gaffer surpassed him for playing against type, bounding from his seat to yell and gesticulate from the coach’s box five minutes later. Promising as the development may have been to masses of suffering Man United faithful, the act appears to have been performed to instruct his side to play keep-away in the corner with far too much time remaining. Hey, if the fans can call it a day early to beat traffic, why not the players?
What to think of the match? If you’re Steve McLaren, you’ve guaranteed yourself at least one more pay packet. If you’re Louis van Gaal, for whom that’s inexplicably been a non-issue, it’s further proof your side knows not who it is, who it was, nor who it can be. Worst of all for those who live and die with the red half of Manchester, if you’re David Moyes, you’re looking at the whole mess with a strange sense of closure.