The Old Trafford derby erupted in controversy on Saturday as Manchester United snatched a dramatic victory after scoring a ‘joke’ equaliser.

Manchester City were furious over Bruno Fernandes’ goal in the 79th minute and complained bitterly to the match officials amid heated scenes in the tunnel area afterwards.

Marcus Rashford, who sealed a 2-1 win with the decisive goal three minutes later, was at the heart of the controversy when he ran into an offside position but left the ball for Fernandes to score.

Manchester City star Manuel Akanji has insisted Bruno Fernandes’ equaliser in the Manchester Derby should not have stood

City were convinced that Rashford was interfering with play and Fernandes’ goal should have been ruled offside

City were convinced Rashford was interfering with play, and defender Manuel Akanji said: ‘The first goal is a joke that it’s allowed. Rashford is clearly offside. I understand he doesn’t touch the ball, but he runs for 30 metres chasing it and then he stops because Bruno is coming in behind him.

‘The referee has to at least look at the situation. Probably the pressure got to him in the stadium, that’s why he decided to let it go.’

Akanji was one of several players who approached the referee Stuart Attwell and fourth official Robert Jones at the end, and the protests continued into the dressing-room area.

‘I came really late to it,’ he added. ‘When I was there it was close to the end. I don’t know how it started or what was the actual reason but everybody was not in a good mood.’

But referee Stuart Attwell allowed the goal to stand, resulting in protests after the final whistle

Pep Guardiola claimed Rashford ‘distracted our keeper and central defenders’ following the game

City boss Pep Guardiola insisted that his players didn’t go over the top with their complaints, saying: ‘Nothing happened. I know exactly how we behave.’

Guardiola was unhappy over how the offside rule was applied and also hinted that the officials may have been influenced by the Old Trafford crowd.

‘Marcus Rashford is offside, Bruno Fernandes is not,’ said the City boss. ‘Rashford distracted our keeper and central defenders. It is what it is. The rule is the rule and the interpretation belongs to the referees.

‘We know where we play, it is difficult for the referees in these stadiums. This is Old Trafford, we have to play much better.’

Guardiola also said he ‘didn’t care about the Premier League or the Carabao Cup’ after seeing City drop points in the title race, but clarified his comments afterwards.

The 25-year-old continued his hot streak in front of goal by scoring the winner just minutes after the controversial equaliser 

‘Come on, of course I care about the Premier League,’ explained Guardiola. ‘But right now, if you don’t win you don’t win. You’re not going to win for the next 25 years. We will fight, but sometimes football is like this. They deserve it.’

United manager Erik ten Hag defended the referee’s decision after seeing his side win for the ninth game in a row.

‘It’s a confusing moment for the opponent,’ said Ten Hag. ‘But if you follow the rules, he didn’t touch the ball. He was not interfering and it’s a goal. Bruno came from the back, I could see that from the other side.’

Not surprisingly, Fernandes also insisted that Rashford didn’t interfere with play or influence the actions of the City players.

Following the game Erik ten Hag defended Attwell’s decision to allow Fernandes’ goal to stand

He said: ‘I think because I was facing the goal, Marcus probably saw I was in a better position. I didn’t know if any of us was offside or not, but no one was close to him so it doesn’t have an influence on the defending team. The only one close was close to me, so it is what it is – a goal.’

However, Luke Shaw as a little more sympathetic to City’s protests after giving another impressive display at centre-back to help keep Erling Haaland quiet.

‘Of course you can understand where they are coming from,’ said Shaw. ‘If I’m on the other team, then we’re all doing the same. I think everyone would say that.

‘Rashy was clever to know that Bruno was there and leave the ball. For me, it was a goal. The linesman and ref were talking about it and I could see them say it was a goal.’

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Manuel Akanji brands Man United’s equaliser against Man City ‘A JOKE’ amid Rashford controversy

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Peyton Manning isn’t a fan of Josh Jacob’s throwing mechanics for the Pro Bowl’s water balloon toss.

“I know I come across as quite confident,” says newswoman Philomena Cunk, “but sometimes when I’m talking to experts, I worry that, you know, I might come across as quite stupid.”

This is easily the most self-aware moment for Cunk throughout the five-episode British mockumentary series Cunk on Earth, which began streaming on Netflix this week. As played by Diane Morgan, Cunk is a naive simpleton who can barely grasp any of the subjects she discusses, filtering everything through an extremely narrow and modern lens. As she attempts to survey all of human history in Cunk on Earth, for instance, she declares, “One of the reasons we still know about the Romans today is Wikipedia.” At another point, she and British historical linguistics expert Dr. Irving Finkel study a stone tablet featuring some of the earliest human writing. “If someone shouted this aloud,” she wonders, “would that have been the first audiobook?” Finkel takes a long pause before simply saying, “No.”

This is more or less the dynamic with everyone Cunk encounters. Morgan has been playing the character on and off for a decade, starting with appearances on the comedy news show Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe. On this side of the pond, Brooker is best known as the creator of Black Mirror, and while there are hints of the sci-fi anthology in Cunk on Earth — notably a joke where Beethoven is resurrected inside a smart speaker — for the most part, the Cunk series are significantly sillier. It’s still deeply satirical — while Cunk is profoundly stupid, many of her individual questions do not feel that far off from what some actual TV personalities might ask, or what the man on the street might think about mummification (which she compares to “the kind of spa treatment Gwyneth Paltrow has on a regular basis”) or Genghis Khan (who these days “comes up in conversation less often than Dennis Quaid”). But the tone is a lot lighter.

Because Cunk’s interview subjects are real-life experts in their field struggling to answer her ridiculous questions, there is perhaps an easy comparison to make to various Sacha Baron Cohen characters, Ali G in particular. The key difference, though, is that here the joke is entirely on Philomena herself, rather than the real people who aren’t sure how to respond to her(*). While many of Cohen’s subjects are very much deserving of the humiliation he gives them, he sometimes just crosses paths with perfectly innocuous people whose innate politeness inadvertently makes them into comic victims. There’s none of that awkwardness here.

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(*) Where once upon a time, the experts may have been oblivious to the nature of Philomena and the show, Brooker has acknowledged that Morgan’s been doing it so long that everyone is in on the joke. But the producers ask each subject to be as sincere as possible, and to essentially treat Cunk as a naive child. The dynamic works beautifully, and they are often still flummoxed by the things she says, like when she admits to a scholar on ancient Greece that “I just don’t give a shit about people in Ancient Greece.”

There are occasional moments where Morgan seems to break character slightly — while saying various blasphemous things about the birth of Christianity, she turns to the camera and says, “Don’t worry. I’m doing Islam later” — but for the most part, she commits fiercely, hilariously to the bit, mispronouncing familiar names like “Bible” and “Camelot” (the latter inspires a discussion of how much semen King Arthur produced), making random pop-culture references (prepare to have Technotronic’s “Pump Up the Jam” lodged in your head, not that this is a bad thing), and forever comparing important moments throughout history to the scatalogical exploits of her mate, Paul. (The Crusades remind her of that time he got bad diarrhea.)

Every now and again, Cunk will make a shockingly good point, like when she explains the huge artistic leap that came from the invention of perspective, comparing da Vinci’s The Last Supper to an earlier, less effective painting of the same subject. But then in the next breath, she will compare this particular innovation to the release of the first Crash Bandicoot game, and all seems normal again. 

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What a ridiculous person is Philomena Cunk. What a very funny show is Cunk on Earth.

All five episodes of Cunk on Earth are now streaming on Netflix.

The Longhorns quarterback put the college in college football.

If Manchester United‘s equaliser was deemed correct by the letter of the law, the law is a joke and needs to be changed.

As someone who played the game, I know for sure that Marcus Rashford interfered with play from an offside position regardless of whether he touched the ball.

Ederson would never have been so far off his line if he hadn’t been concerned about Rashford’s presence, thereby giving Bruno Fernandes an easy job to score. Likewise, Kyle Walker would have tracked Bruno’s run had Rashford not been there.

The law needs changing quickly if Bruno Fernandes’ equaliser is deemed to be lawful

The ball was played in behind by Casemiro with Marcus Rashford (circled) clearly offside

Rashford clearly moves towards the ball from his offside position but doesn’t make contact

Fernandes then comes in to score past Ederson after Rashford shepherds the ball to him

Bruno Fernandes causes scenes at Old Trafford! 💥

His goal is ruled onside after the linesman initially put his flag up! ✅ pic.twitter.com/AJDIGH2Be5

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball)

Either way the authorities have to understand you can have a serious impact from an offside position even without playing the ball. The offside rule has to be simplified because, although Saturday’s case was relatively rare, it could happen again.

Rashford was very clever. At the last moment realising he was offside, he withdrew from any attempt to play the ball.

What disturbs me is his positioning changed the dynamic in how City defended the move. I can understand therefore why they were so aggrieved at the reward.

Football at its best is a fair competition between attack and defence. The way the offside law is being interpreted is making it ridiculously difficult to defend.

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DANNY MURPHY: The offside law is a JOKE and needs to be changed quickly

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