Leeds United were involved in a controversial clash with Sunderland at Elland Road on Tuesday night.
A Habib Diarra penalty was enough to give the visitors a 1-0 win; however, the main talking points after the game were to do with the questionable refereeing decisions, as well as Sunderland’s use of frequent time wasting throughout the game.
Jermaine Beckford voiced his opinion on an incident between Sunderland defender Luke O’Nien and Pascal Struijk, with O’Nien grabbing the United defender around the neck before wrestling him to the floor as Leeds were attempting to attack a corner.
Shockingly, a penalty was not given, and VAR didn’t feel like it was a clear and obvious error. Gabby Agbonlahor is the latest former player to have his say on the incident.
Gabby Agbonlahor feels Leeds were hard done by against Sunderland
Agbonlahor has been known to have his back-and-forths with Leeds supporters in the past; however, even the former Aston Villa forward couldn’t deny the fact that United were denied an obvious penalty against Sunderland.
Live on talkSPORT, Agbonlahor and a Leeds supporter were discussing the incident between Struijk and O’Nien, with the supporter venting his frustrations live on air.
Agbonlahor agreed with the Leeds fans’ assessment and claimed Manchester United recently received a penalty of their own for something far less obvious as a set-piece was being delivered.
“I thought it was a penalty, the thing for me is, if you look at the Matheus Cunha one, that was given as a penalty, a tap on the shoulder… You look at that, Struijk has got an arm round his neck, for me it’s a penalty.”
Supercomputer gives updated Leeds relegation verdict following Sunderland defeat
Although Leeds were hard done by against Sunderland, Daniel Farke will know that his side will need to do a better job at creating chances against the teams in and around them from now until the end of the season, particularly at home.
With Sunderland sitting back and defending against Leeds during their trip to Elland Road, the likes of Burnley and Wolves will likely deploy similar tactics during their respective visits to West Yorkshire.
Following the defeat against Sunderland, Opta’s supercomputer has updated its percentage chance for Leeds to go down.
- A matter of days ago, Leeds’ chance of being relegated sat at just over 2%
- However, following the defeat against Sunderland, United’s chances of going down rose to 4.89%
United’s relegation rivals, West Ham and Nottingham Forest, both have tricky away fixtures ahead of them tonight, against Fulham and Manchester City respectively, with Leeds fans desperately watching on and hoping they don’t close the gap between themselves and the Whites.
