Did a referee's mistake lead to Manchester United's loss against Arsenal? The reasons for the valid goal have been revealed, but Cunha should have been awarded a penalty.

Experienced Premier League referee Simon Hooper was assigned to officiate the key match between Manchester United and Arsenal, which sparked questions before the match even started. In the end, he lived up to expectations by making controversial calls, and fans from both sides were unhappy with his decisions.

At 43 years old, Hooper has officiated 9 matches involving Manchester United, with the last one being their 0-2 home loss to Newcastle United last December, which was his only match involving United last season. However, in the opening match of the 2023/24 season, he was criticized for missing a foul and penalty when Andre Onana punched Sasha Kalajdzic during stoppage time.

Right from the start of the match, Hooper faced criticism when Mbeumo struck an opponent in the face with a wild swing of his arm, leading Arsenal fans to believe it should have been a red card. However, Hooper's decision indicated that he would adopt a very lenient approach to officiating this match.

In the 13th minute, the process of Arsenal's opening goal was filled with controversy. Fans at Old Trafford complained that William Saliba had pulled the arm of goalkeeper Bian Dier and tugged at the shirt of defender Mason Mount. Nevertheless, Hooper signaled the goal was valid, and the VAR assistant referee did not intervene.

However, Bian Dier could only blame himself for not being assertive enough; he still had a chance to clear the ball from the danger zone but only managed to deflect it into the back post, allowing Ricardo Calafiori to head in what proved to be the winning goal!

Manchester United fans were likely focused solely on Saliba's actions, but if VAR had intervened and analyzed the situation frame by frame, there were fouls occurring all over the penalty area. Among the United players, two were clearly involved in fouls: Cunha wrapped his arms around from behind, while Luke Shaw locked onto the opponent's neck.

How should VAR assess this? Perhaps by disallowing Arsenal's goal and awarding a penalty for a defensive foul by Manchester United. United's coach Amorim stated, "I don't want to talk about the referee. In my view, the opponent touched the goalkeeper but was not trying to play the ball. However, we need to adapt to do the same thing. The goalkeeper must be more assertive, pushing everyone aside to go for the ball. We need to be stronger; you can't change the rules, so you have to adapt to them. Today, I believe Manchester United was the better team."

The goal conceded by Manchester United is largely seen by the British media as a mistake by goalkeeper Bian Dier, who should have performed better. United had attempted to disrupt David Raya during a corner kick in a similar manner, yet the Arsenal goalkeeper remained strong and cleared the danger.

While it might be understandable for the conceded goal to be deemed valid, the incident in the second half before regular time ended, where Manchester United's new signing Cunha was tripped by Saliba in the penalty area, likely left many believing it should have been a penalty. Saliba attempted to clear the ball but only made contact with Cunha, who fell to the ground, yet both Hooper and VAR did not award a penalty.

Former Premier League referee Mike Dean attempted to explain the reasoning, stating that Saliba's action was a foot-on-foot contact, suggesting that both players had a 50-50 chance of winning the ball and neither touched it, but since United's number 10 controlled the ball, the foul by the Arsenal defender was inevitable.

However, the referee is an uncontrollable factor for Manchester United; even if there were mistakes, the team should have at least scored to draw, as the Red Devils faced Arsenal for the first time since their classic 8-2 victory, having 22 shots in the match with an expected goal tally of 1.59, yet they failed to capitalize.

Amorim concluded, "Manchester United has players capable of winning any Premier League match; we need to focus and forget about the outside noise. No matter who is on the field, we want to win."