Manchester United secured a place in the fourth round of the FA Cup after an outstanding defensive display saw them dump Arsenal out of the competition at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Amorim’s side took the lead through a fine Bruno Fernandes strike before Gabriel’s deflected effort drew the home side level.
The game burst into life with an incident-packed second period that included a Diogo Dalot red card and a Martin Odegaard penalty miss, alongside the two goals that followed a forgettable first period.
Odegaard’s spot-kick was expertly saved by United stopper Altay Bayindir, after referee Andrew Madley pointed to the spot under highly controversial circumstances.
Madley fell for Kai Havertz’ act of manipulating contact with Harry Maguire in the United penalty area which sparked a mass brawl between the two sets of players.
With no VAR to overturn the obvious error, United were enraged and the players started targeting Havertz out for his blatant dive.
Manuel Ugarte was one of the first on the scene to confront the German, with pictures and videos later emerging which showed the United man appearing to push his head into the face of Havertz.
The ‘headbutt’ came after Havertz had put his hands around the Uruguayan’s neck with replays not particularly favourable for either party.
As reported by The Mirror, Ugarte could now face a retrospective ban for his actions with the FA looking into the incident in the coming days.
Ugarte was perhaps fortunate VAR was not present in North London with most acts of potential violent conduct punished with a straight red card nowadays.
However, no harm was ultimately done to either player with Havertz playing as much, if not more, of a role in the incident.
Should the midfielder be found guilty, he could miss up to three games for United which would represent a huge blow to Ruben Amorim’s plans.
Ugarte has been in impressive form over the last few weeks and is now arguably the first name on the teamsheet at Old Trafford.
United will hope the FA look impartially into the matter and punish Havertz instead and not punish the 23-year-old as the club aim for a strong second half of the campaign.
Feature image Julian Finney via Getty Images
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Conner Botterill
Conner Botterill has been with The Peoples Person for two years. A keen match-going red with degrees in Sport and Journalism and Philosophy and Psychology, Conner still believes he has a chance of making United’s first team through his 5-a-side career.
