With Marcus Rashford scoring just moments after Wilfried Zaha was denied a first-half penalty, Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish was left asking ‘is the VAR broken?’ before the video assistant referee ruled out a second-half Jordan Ayew strike for offside.
Palace felt they should have had a penalty before the break at Selhurst Park when Manchester United defender Victor Lindelof appeared to bring down Zaha.
Referee Graham Scott waved away the appeals, while VAR did not intervene despite replays showing Lindelof catch the former United winger before touching the ball.
Is the VAR broken ? Serious question … #clfc #mufc
— Steve Parish (@CEO4TAG) July 16, 2020
The decision left not only Palace fans – and their chairman – frustrated, but supporters of Leicester and Chelsea too with the top-four race going the distance.
And after benefitting from the controversial verdict not to award a penalty, United delivered a sucker-punch when Rashford curled in his 17th Premier League goal of the season.
With a nervy United protecting their lead going into the second half, it seemed Palace had equalised through Ayew in the 55th minute.
However, the VAR team at Stockley Park got the blue and red lines out to rule Ayew was in fact millimetres offside – an outcome which left Palace boss Roy Hodgson smiling through gritted teeth.
At the drinks break Hodgson was then seen protesting with the officials, clearly still aggrieved with the decisions that went against his team.
The offside was one of many tight calls in the Premier League this season, but not following up on the Zaha penalty shout will have irked Hodgson.
VAR can only intervene if there is a clear and obvious error, and the argument could be that referee Scott did not have a severe lapse in judgement.
Try telling that to Hodgson.
Ian Winrow at Selhurst Park
Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial secured the victory that extended Manchester United’s unbeaten run to 19 games and ensured they kept pace in the increasingly tense battle for a top four finish.
The outcome, though, could have been very different had VAR not intervened to deny Crystal Palace a first half penalty when Wilf Zaha and Victor Lindelof came together, and Jordan Ayew’s second half effort – VAR Simon Hooper adjudged Ayew was offside by the tightest of margins – that would have cancelled out Rashford’s opener.
With Leicester having won earlier in the day, Solskjaer’s side knew they had to win to keep pace with Brendan Rodgers’s fourth placed side. They did so thanks to Rashford’s calm finish in first half added time and Martial’s superbly constructed second in the 79th minute. Solskjaer might also consider they benefited from a significant slice of good fortune.
Mason Greenwood shrugged off an ankle injury to take his place in Solskjaer’s line-up as the United manager made two changes to the side that drew 2-2 with Southampton on Monday.
Scott McTominay came in for Nemanja Matic in central midfield while more surprisingly, Timothy Fosu-Mensah was brought in at left-back after Luke Shaw and Brandon Williams were ruled out.
The Dutch defender last featured for United in May 2017 and, having spent time on loan at Palace and Fulham, this was his first appearance for the club in 1152 days.
Attention quickly switched, however, to the opposite flank where Palace winger Wilf Zaha wrong-footed Aaron Wan-Bissaka, the United right-back, before drawing a good save from David De Gea inside the opening minute. That set the tone for a positive opening by the home side who started confidently, despite having come into the game on the back of a run of five defeats.
While United initially struggled to get into their stride, they could easily have forced an early lead when Harry Maguire twice rose to meet Bruno Fernandes corners but was unable to direct his headed effort on goal.
Palace, though, continued to press forward at every opportunity and unsettled the visitors’s backline on a number of occasions. Yet while Solskjaer’s side may have taken their tie to settle, the threat of their forward players was underlined midway through the first half when Anthony Martial pulled the ball back for Greenwood whose finish for once lacked conviction and drifted wide.
Rashford produced a much more convincing effort to give his side the lead in first half added time when he calmly beat Patrick Van Aanholt and slotted home after a fluent exchange of passes between Fernandes and Martial. That added to Palace’s frustration who were convinced they should have been awarded a penalty two minutes earlier when Zaha went to ground under a challenge from Victor Lindelof. Referee Graham Scott waved away appeals for a penalty, with VAR Simon Hooper adjudging the United centre-back got a touch on the ball.
If Palace had felt aggrieved at that decision, worse was to come for Hodgson’s side who continued to take the game to United after the restart before forcing what they were convinced was the equaliser ten minutes into the second half. Zaha was again the architect, working his way into space on the left before delivering a low cross that Ayew turned home at the far post. Their celebrations were curtailed however, when VAR spotted Ayew was slightly offside.
United added the second in the 79th minute after Rashford combined well with Fernandes before teeing up Martial to finish.
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