According to the Athletic (subscription required), Manchester United were not awarded a penalty after Jordan Pickford kicked out at Harry Maguire’s gut as the contact wasn’t seen as significant enough.
The incident can be seen here. Maguire appeared to push Pickford out of bounds after a free-kick, leading the goalkeeper to drop the ball, with the Man United man attempting to knock the ball in.
Pickford came back inside and attempted to shut down Maguire’s attempt on goal with a reckless kick to the defender’s body.
Pickford’s knee ended up drilling into Maguire’s gut, leaving the centre-back to fall to the ground as he also simultaneously collided with Michael Keane.
The Athletic report that VAR did in fact check the incident, with Michael Oliver deciding not to overturn Paul Tierney’s on-pitch decision.
The Athletic add that the contact Pickford made was not seen as ‘significant’ enough for either Oliver or Tierney to award a penalty, with the fact that both players were trying to play the ball taken into account.
It seems like we can’t go a single matchday without some extremely questionable calls from the officials, thankfully today’s didn’t impact the final result for once.
Perhaps fans will have to lower their expectations and just take that as a positive at this point. What else needs to be done to ensure that the right calls are being made?