Man United 2 Bournemouth 2
A controversial game on Friday night. This game had a draw written all over it in the build-up with Bournemouth drawing 14 games already this season prior to this one and only losing twice at home to Everton and Arsenal. United actually came out the better side in the first half with Amad and Fernandes both going close along with Cunha terrorising Alex Jimenez at right-back for Bournemouth, United dominated but couldn’t find that opening goal in the first half to really take control of the game. The second half was a bit more even but a bit of magic from Matheus Cunha was too much to handle for Jimenez who pulled his shirt back in the box to give United a penalty in the 60th minute, Fernandes dispatched to put United 0-1 up. Just five minutes later controversy ensued as Amad was pretty blatantly pushed over in the box but the referee waved away and Bournemouth countered up the other end with the ball falling to Ryan Christie on the edge of the box who poked the ball through Maguire’s legs and scored just a few seconds after United’s penalty appeal. VAR didn’t go against the referee Stuart Atwell which we’ll talk about later on but the game was all square, then in the 71st minute Bruno Fernandes whipped a corner towards the back post which was then inadvertently turned into his own net by James Hill to put United 1-2 up. More controversy ensued a few minutes later as Evanilson was brought down in the box by Harry Maguire who was then sent off for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity, Junior Kroupi stepped up and fired brilliantly past Lammens to bring the game all square with ten minutes left to play, United saw the game out well in the end to get a point even through nine minutes of added time.
A good performance from United on the whole. I thought United played quite well in the game especially in the first half despite not scoring, Matheus Cunha was United’s best player on the day and gave Jimenez nightmares down that left-hand-side culminating in the penalty in the second half. Cunha also should have had an assist after playing Amad clean through on goal only for the Ivorian to take a horrific touch taking him miles away from the goal, Fernandes was excellent yet again and was stopped from scoring in the first half by a magnificent save from Petrovic in the Bournemouth goal. United were let down by a couple of performances namely Mbeumo and Amad along with Casemiro who was unusually below-par, I think we know by now that Mbeumo simply can’t play as a striker and I can’t believe that it took until the 71st minute for Carrick to sub Sesko on. Amad has been poor for quite some time now and probably should be dropped allowing Mbeumo back into that right-wing spot, a point isn’t the end of the world after having to play with 10-men for twenty minutes.
Bournemouth just love a draw. I’ve got to be honest I don’t think Bournemouth played that well tonight but they did well to comeback from a losing position twice to earn the point in the end, the quality on the flanks from Adli and Rayan was pretty awful all night as Evanilson was the only player in the attack that looked dangerous along with Kroupi when he came on who gave the pass that led to the penalty for Bournemouth. I wonder if Iraola could find a way to play those two up front together as they looked dynamite in the last twenty minutes with some brilliant football in the build-up for Bournemouth’s equaliser, Alex Scott was another one who had a good game and was so unlucky not to score with his brilliant effort coming off the crossbar then hitting Lammens on the way back which nearly resulted in an own-goal. Overall too many draws have probably cost Bournemouth a spot in Europe for next season but I still think it’s a positve season for a club which sold their whole defence last summer along with selling Semenyo in January.
Stuart Atwell bottled the decision to give United a second penalty. Stuart Atwell is someone who’s been controversial in the recent past when refereeing United games as the last time he was in charge was the Burnley vs United match in January where the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents Panel ruled he shouldn’t have disallowed Lisandro Martinez’s goal, so in his first game back in charge of a United match he doesn’t give a penalty for the push on Amad but gives a penalty and a red card for basically the same challenge from Maguire, either you give both or you give neither but he clearly didn’t want to give two penalties in quick succession and VAR didn’t want to intervene after Bournemouth scored right after. I wouldn’t be surprised if United make a complaint to the PGMOL questioning both decisions from the referee who you could say cost United two points on the day in the battle for Champions League football next season.
Could be a valuable point for United in the end. After Bournemouth scored the equaliser in the 80th minute I thought United would concede the third, especially after the referee added a baffling nine minutes on at the end which came from nowhere as there where no real long stoppages in the second half, regardless the point puts United four ahead of Villa, six ahead of Liverpool and seven ahead of Chelsea all of which have a game in hand over the weekend to close the gap. United now don’t play for another 21 days with an international break and FA Cup weekend on the way with the next game on Monday Night Football against Leeds at Old Trafford where United will look to keep their unbeaten streak against Leeds which spans over 20 years in the Premier League, a long wait before we see Carrick’s reds in action again, hopefully we see some players returning from injury for that game with the likes of Dorgu, De Ligt and Lisandro Martinez all on the side-lines for some time, lets hope at least two of them are back for that game in April.