In two of the first three weeks of the 2023/24 Premier League season we’ve seen penalty incidents involving Manchester United dominate the narrative for an entire week.
After the first week, despite a controversial penalty for Luton against Brighton, Newcastle thumping Aston Villa and a game between Chelsea and Liverpool the media devoted an entire week to discussing how Wolves had been robbed of a penalty at Old Trafford.
Sky Sports, talkSPORT and newspaper social media accounts were dedicating hours and hours and hundreds of column inches to how much of a disgrace it was, whilst Wolves even said they received an official apology. What was the result? The following week against Tottenham, Manchester United were denied arguably two clear penalties as referees likely feared a backlash. The media didn’t spend a week talking about those.
We’ve seen this before after a certain manager on Merseyside complained about Manchester United getting penalties, with the result that officials simply refused to award any, with one even admitting to the players that he felt he should have given one but refused because he feared the backlash.
Backlash against a stonewall penalty? Well yes, you just have to look at the reaction to a certain penalty this weekend as Marcus Rashford was bundled over in the box. It was a stonewall penalty and yet we’ve seen Nottingham Forest lodge an official complaint over that as well as a red card for Joe Worrall, despite seeing Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk sent off for a similar offence the following day.
pic.twitter.com/WwFoXnOxq7 https://t.co/HkePtBHKTD
— Scott Patterson (@R_o_M) August 28, 2023
We even seen Chris Sutton claim that United have referees ‘in their back pocket’ yet United saw Andre Onana booked for time wasting when there were two balls on the pitch, which meant Onana, by the rules, had to wait for one to be cleared away before he could take the goal kick. Rashford was booked for kicking the ball away. A clear yellow card and a silly one but one that doesn’t happen if the referee doesn’t give a free kick against him for two Forest players running into each other. There were questionable decisions in that game but it’s not the ones against Forest.
But the kind of narrative we’ve seen from the media, Wolves and Nottingham Forest is likely to have a huge knock on effect. Will referees be reluctant to award any decisions to United for fear of media scrutiny or a complaint being made against them. We’ve already seen it and despite this narrative, Manchester United were awarded just three penalties last season, the joint in the league. The way things are going right now a United player could be elbowed in the face in the box and a penalty wouldn’t be given.
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It ain’t gonna happen, of course, but this needs Forest to say they’ve had another look, can see it was a penalty, withdraw their complaint, AND APOLOGISE. That would cut the ground from under those ignorant ABU’s posing as knowledgable commentators. Love to hear them still insisting it was a dive if Forest agreed it wasn’t.
Ain’t gonna happen, as I said.