Ref took ‘two points away from us’, says Solskjaer after goalless draw at Chelsea

Manchester United manager has reacted to the controversial penalty denied his team in the goalless draw against Chelsea on Sunday.

Callum Hodson-Odoi appeared to have handled the ball in the Chelsea 18 but referee Stuart Atwell ruled it out and refused to watch a replay of the incident despite VAR’s advise.

Although United maintained their second spot following Leicester City’s 3-1 defeat to Arsenal, the draw pulled the Red Devils 12points adrift runaway league leaders Manchester City who defeated West Ham on Saturday.

Asked if he thought his side should have been given a penalty, Solskjaer told Sky Sports: “Yep, 100 per cent. They’re shouting it’s handball for our player, but when you look at it on the video, it’s taken two points away from us.”

Sky Sports recalled that United were similarly aggrieved two weeks ago after their draw at West Brom when Harry Maguire was denied a penalty and Solksjaer said afterwards, “ever since other people from other teams spoke about us, we’ve had absolutely nothing from the referee or VAR.”

“It’s not right, is it?” he said. “It’s all these outside influences, even the VAR talk before the game here on Harry, when they put that on the website, that’s cheeky. It’s influencing referees. You can go back and look at the website. It’s putting pressure on the referees to give penalties against us.

“We’ve seen, there was a manager – was it Frank? [Lampard] – there’s loads of talk about us getting penalties, when there is no doubt whatsoever. Now we should’ve had one, that’s clear to this.”