Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag criticised the inconsistency of Video Assistant Referees and felt Crystal Palace forward Jordan Ayew should have been sent off in their 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford.
United midfielder Casemiro was dismissed after he grabbed Palace midfielder Will Hughes by the throat.
During the same melee that spilled off the pitch, Ayew appeared to have his hand around the throat of United midfielder Fred but that was not deemed a red card offence.
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Casemiro’s expulsion was the first red card for a United player all season and earlier in the week, Ten Hag had expressed dismay over the decision not to penalise Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta for elbowing Lisandro Martinez in the reverse fixture last month.
“We played a good game,” Ten Hag said of United’s 2-1 win over Palace.
It’s such a good spirit in the team and they don’t accept when a player from us can be badly injured and that’s the way Antony got treated.
I see two teams of players crossing the line and then one player gets picked out, gets sent off.
“The player from Crystal Palace takes a big risk by this foul that he gets badly injured by pushing him across the line and you know the pitches here.
And then everyone is reacting, Crystal Palace and Manchester United players, and not only Casemiro.
“Last week we missed Christian Eriksen by a bad foul – no interfering by VAR.
“You see in this moment that the team spirit and also once again, they have to control their emotions and you can’t cross lines, there are certain standards you have to keep there as a team.
“But also you have to protect each other when players like Christian Eriksen last week, it’s not really as a colleague that you want to get another player such an injury, and it was the same with Antony today.
Players and colleagues are hurting each other that bad like the player last week did against Christian Eriksen and the player from Crystal Palace – he started this, he took a big risk by injuring Antony.
