'Diabolical' - Man Utd fans rage after Amad denied 'blatant' penalty against Brighton as Premier League confirm why decision was not given

Referee Anthony Taylor waved away the appeals deeming De Cuyper's contact on the ball saved him from conceding a penalty. But while watching United fans were apoplectic at the decision their side went into half-time against Brighton with a 2-0 lead after Matheus Cunha scored his first goal for the club in the 24th minute, Casemiro added a second ten minutes later with a deflected strike. A thrilling second half then saw Bryan Mbeumo stretch United's lead to 3-0 but Brighton set up a nervy finish thanks to goals from Danny Welbeck and Charalampos Kostoulas. However, Mbeumo struck again in stoppage time to seal victory.

The Premier League confirmed why the decision was not given after the game in a statement on social media that read: "The referee’s call of no penalty to Manchester United was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that De Cuyper played the ball."

There was furious reaction penalty call as fans at the ground and those watching at home all claimed Man Utd had been stitched up. 

@TurkTalksFC said: "I could see that was a penalty from the lower Stretford End. Just seen a replay. Are you having a laugh??? That is diabolical from Anthony Taylor and VAR."
There was a similar reaction from @StretfordPaddck, who said: "My head is absolutely gone. Checked and cleared by VAR but that looked blatant?!"
And @samuelluckhurst aimed his anger at the match officials, he said: "That's ridiculous from ref Taylor and VAR. Looked an obvious penalty. Taylor said recently referees can't be perfect. No, but that was an easy decision."
While @Muppetiers added: "Lmao how is that not a penalty. Typical Anthony Taylor day playing against an extra man."

And this United fan was absolutely fuming, claiming some kind of conspiracy, @aobrien7 said: "The guy needs to seriously be investigated. More of a foul there than anything Yoro did, but nothing. It's beyond a joke these days. Awful refereeing week in and week out."

United earned a stunning win over deadly rivals Liverpool last weekend, but Arne Slot took aim at Amorim’s ‘long-ball’ tactics at Anfield. But the United boss has hit back, he said: "I don’t care what Slot is saying, what people are saying about our team. I can watch the game and say we can do better and we need to do better in the future but sometimes you need to adapt to the game. So I don’t need anyone to evaluate my team. I can evaluate my team and I am really clear that we should play better with the ball and we are going to try to do that in this game. I’m not saying my players don’t want to win or run, but we need to sometimes (when) it’s getting harder (in matches) to force ourselves to do the basics. If you look at Brighton and the way they play, every team that pressed a little higher struggled and they won. We need to be prepared – not just against the top teams but against opponents that are (also) really good."

Until very recently, it had been all doom and gloom at Old Trafford, with unrest growing following the dreadful 15th place finish last season, defeat by Tottenham in the Europa League final and disappointing results to start this  season. But there are green shoots of renewal, with victories over Sunderland, Liverpool and now Brighton. Upcoming matches will reveal more about United’s hopes for the season as they travel to Nottingham Forest, which is followed by matches against Spurs and Everton.