Fulham 1, Manchester United 1
Lacklustre Manchester United were held at Fulham with captain Bruno Fernandes missing a first half penalty.
Embed from Getty ImagesFernandes blazed his spot kick over the bar in the first half which would have broken the deadlock – the Portuguese opted for power rather than placement and was annoyed that referee Chris Kavanagh accidentally bumped into him while he was preparing to pick his spot.
The penalty was awarded after VAR took interest in a tussle between Mason Mount and Calvin Bassey.
The Reds did eventually take the lead at Craven Cottage after Leny Yoro’s header was deflected into his own goal off the unfortunate Rodrigo Muniz’ back from a hotly disputed corner routine by Bryan Mbeumo.
Protests over a two handed push on Bassey by Yoro to create some space for himself were not followed up by VAR.
But United could not hold on to the lead and Emile Smith Rowe made their visitors pay when he diverted Alex Iwobi’s cross past Altay Bayindir with his first touch after coming on as a substitute.
Matheus Cunha had earlier hit the woodwork and was denied by a reaction save from Bernd Leno when Bayindir’s big clearance was controlled by the Brazilian but his shot was too close to the Fulham keeper.
The draw was a massive blow for United boss Ruben Amorim who has only 7 wins from 29 Premier League games for a win percentage of just 24.1% – the same percentage as Neil Warnock who had won only 27 games out of 112 – as they failed to beat Fulham at Craven Cottage for the first time in 15 years.
Amorim, who will soon start to feel the pressure if results don’t improve, said: “It was a tough match, after we scored the goal we forgot about maintaining how we should play.