Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was furious with Chelsea after claiming the club released an article on their website that could have influenced referee Stuart Attwell before the match. United played out a 0-0 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge but there was controversy about a potential penalty decision in the first half. The article that Solskjaer was referring to was a pre-match piece on Chelsea’s official club site, where they highlighted an incident in the reverse fixture where Maguire hauled back Cesar Azpilicueta inside the area, though VAR didn’t deem the challenge worthy of a penalty.
The article said : “The Man United skipper’s actions will also be under scrutiny again on Sunday after his penalty area tangle with Jamal Lascelles last weekend. In recent Chelsea meetings the Reds’ centre-back has survived VAR reviews of a potential penalty foul on Cesar Azpilicueta and violent challenge on Michy Batshuayi that may well have affected the outcome.”
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said: “Yep, 100% (is a penalty). No idea (why it wasn’t given), not at all, especially when they stop it, he walks across to watch it. From here, you can see it’s a handball but you think it’s our player who does it and then when you look at it on the video, it’s taken two points away from us. I can’t say because that’s not going to be good for him. Of course it is (concerning). I didn’t say it so I don’t want to cause controversy, it’s not right, is it? It’s all these outside influences, even the VAR talk here before the game with Harry, that’s cheeky when they put that on their website, that’s influencing referees. You can go back and look at the websites. You can read it, what they’re saying about all the controversy with Harry Maguire and putting pressure on the referees to give penalties against us (laughs). We’ve seen there was a manager, was it Frank who started it? There’s loads of talk about us getting penalties when there is no doubt whatsoever. Now, we should have had the penalty, that’s clear.”
