Brentford were lucky not to have a man sent off against Manchester United on Saturday afternoon.
Manchester United suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium.
A first-half brace from Thiago gave Brentford a 2-0 lead, before Benjamin Sesko opened his account for the club by pulling one goal back.
Bruno Fernandes missed a penalty kick in the second half, and United never looked like scoring other than that as a flat performance inflicted more pressure on Ruben Amorim.
The United head coach has yet to win back-to-back league games since arriving at Old Trafford last November.
United will now work on getting back to winning ways when they host Sunderland next weekend. It feels like an unhealthy cycle at this rate.
Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty ImagesRuben Amorim verdict on Nathan Collins’ yellow card
Nathan Collins escaped a red card during United’s defeat against Brentford. The Irish defender fouled Bryan Mbeumo in the second half, pulling down his former teammate inside the box and preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Referee Craig Pawson wasted no time pointing towards the spot before giving Collins a yellow card.
Fernandes, who missed the spot kick, had to wait over four minutes to take his penalty due to VAR checking the incident.
Collins was lucky to escape a red card because he tugged on Mbeumo’s shirt while being the last man back. There was no one between him and Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher, which, in theory, should qualify as a clear goalscoring opportunity.
“The referee told me that Bryan was not in control of the ball,” Amorim said after the match, as quoted by BBC Sport.
“You [the media] can say what happened. I don’t want to talk about the referee.”
Amorim makes a valid point that he doesn’t want to focus on officials when it was clear, for anyone watching the game, that United were not at the races.
Premier League statement on Collins’ decision
After pulling back Mbeumo in front of the Brentford goal, it looked as if Collins would be sent for an early shower.
Mbeumo was running on to a low cross in the 71st minute when Brentford were leading 2-1 when he was tugged back by Collins in the box.
United fans immediately questioned why Collins got away with not being sent off.
The Premier League Match Centre confirmed shortly after the incident that VAR had “deemed that Mbeumo wasn’t in control of the ball,” which is the exact same explanation given to Amorim.
#BREMUN – 71’
The referee’s call of penalty was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Collins deemed to pulled Mbeumo back. VAR also checked the referee’s call of yellow card to Collins – and deemed that Mbeumo wasn’t in control of the ball.
— Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) September 27, 2025
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