Expert delivers new Man Utd red card verdict after controversial decision in Brentford match

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American referee David Gerson reckons Brentford should have been reduced to 10 men during Manchester United's crushing 3-1 defeat at the G-Tech Community Stadium. Brentford defender Nathan Collins escaped a red card after hauling down Bryan Mbeumo in the second half. The Bees defender pulled back his former teammate inside the box.

Referee Craig Pawson brandished a yellow card whilst Video Assistant Referee Andy Madley, working alongside assistant Nicholas Hopton, reviewed the incident at Stockley Park and ruled it wasn't worthy of a dismissal. Bruno Fernandes stepped up to take the penalty with Brentford leading 2-1, but his strike was kept out.

Justifying the call, the Premier League Match Centre posted on X: "The referee's call of penalty was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Collins deemed to pulled Mbeumo back. VAR also checked the referee's call of yellow card to Collins - and deemed that Mbeumo wasn't in control of the ball."

Yet Gerson, who shared his thoughts on Instagram , took issue with the Premier League's stance.

"This is absolutely a red card for denial of obvious goalscoring opportunity," he declared. "How this was only a yellow card and penalty, I don't understand. Let me go ahead and dispel some myths, double jeopardy, you can't give a red card in a penalty kick. Absolutely, you can. The laws have changed over the years, it used to be the case you couldn't, now you can.

"The second thing, what are DOGSO (Denial of Goal Scoring Opportunity) conditions, so distance, absolutely met, number of defenders, there's no one between the foul and the goal, and then you got direction, he's right in the middle of the field, he's going towards goal and then, likely to control.

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"That's right, you don't need to have control of the ball for it to be a red card, for DOGSO opportunity. This ball has not come across him yet and he's being pulled back so the foul has occurred, he's being pulled away from the ball, he absolutely has likelihood of control - a slow rolling ball for a Premier League or running onto the ball, that is absolute likelihood of control.

"So the correct decision should be a red card and a penalty kick. How they did not award this, I don't understand because it makes a difference, right. We got 15 minutes left in the game, player gets sent off and obviously they missed the penalty kick, but still, now you're playing 11 vs 10 men.

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"I am really interested to hear PGMOL's explanation of this one." United endured their third league defeat of the campaign, sparking fresh doubts about Ruben Amorim's tenure.

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