The goal being chalked off infuriated Red Devils fans, who pointed out that Manchester City scored a similar goal against Fulham earlier in September that was allowed to stand.
Howard Webb, chief refereeing officer at Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, later admitted that Nathan Ake's goal should not have been allowed to stand because Manuel Akanji was blocking the Fulham goalkeeper.
He said on Sky Sports: “From the outset, I want to say this should have been disallowed. These are not always easy to call because you are trying to get two pieces of information together. Is the player in an offside position, which official is in a good position to see, and what consequence was there of the player being in that position and how it impacts the opponents?
“It certainly appears that Akanji has an impact on Bernd Leno, the goalkeeper seems to hesitate. The officials on the field gave the goal, they did not see the obvious action that impacted Leno’s ability to play the ball. They did not feel it was clearly impactful on Leno’s ability to play the ball but when you see it, you can see that hesitation by the goalkeeper who was waiting to see whether the ball made contact with Akanji, which would have deflected the ball."