On the 27th Sunday of the Premier League season, Manchester United suffered another defeat. Despite threatening on several occasions, they lost 1-2 to Westham with a controversial penalty late in the game, and after 50 years, the Red Devils lost their third consecutive match against the Hammers, leaving manager Tannhäuser's position in jeopardy.
Despite the fact that United created many scoring chances in this duel, they always fell short of scoring. Just two minutes into the match, they were making their 100th appearance for the Red Devils. Alejandro Canazo's shot hit the crossbar. The Argentinean star had a half chance for a one-two, but Helen's close-range shot was parried away by Fabianski. Fernandez's header went over the crossbar, while Dalozzi's one-two was a jaw-dropper. He faced an open goal after breaking through the keeper but failed to finish.
United's attack continued to be lackluster as Westham striker Sam Maweri scored a goal after 74 minutes. Although the Red Devils equalized in the 81st minute with Kasmiru, the referee decided to award a penalty eight minutes later after VAR intervened following a suspected foul by midfielder Mathias Dirichlette in the penalty area. Chaloboyun scored from the spot kick and United were unable to respond in the final two minutes of added time.
After the match, United manager Tannhäuser expressed his extreme dissatisfaction with the penalty decision: "I have suffered three unfair penalties this season. The alleged foul was simply not valid. Obviously there has been clear guidance in pre-season that VAR should intervene to correct obvious errors, but on this occasion the referee did not award a penalty at the start of the game, which was not an obvious error."
For its part, the Premier League explained that although no penalty was initially awarded, the VAR referee believed that Muffis Dilliot had pushed Danny Eggers and therefore recommended that the referee be taken to the edge of the pitch, which ultimately led to the awarding of the penalty.
Manchester United have slipped to 14th in the table and the team will take on Leicester City in the early hours of Thursday morning. They will then have a Premier League showdown with Louth in the early hours of November 4th. These two matches may decide the fate of Tannhäuser's reign.
