West Ham 0 Manchester United 2: Slaven Bilic claims referee ‘killed’ Hammers with harsh Sofiane Feghouli red card
Mike Dean wrongly sent off Feghouli for a late challenge on Phil Jones
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SLAVEN BILIC accused referee Mike Dean of killing West Ham after Sofiane Feghouli’s red card.
The Hammers winger was sent off in the 15th minute following a clash with Manchester United defender Phil Jones.
West Ham will appeal the Algerian’s three-match ban and Bilic accused Jones of play-acting to save his own bacon.
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The Croat boss said: “It was never a red card — it was a challenge from both of them.
“The foul is Phil Jones. He got the ball but went with the scissors-kick.
“After the game I saw it. It gave me proof that I’m right.
“The more times I’ve seen it, it’s the other way round. It was Jones who made a more dangerous tackle than Feghouli.
“Feghouli’s foot was not high in the air, it was not deliberate.
“It was the key decision and it killed us.
“It put the game in a different perspective and was totally unfair on us.
“Phil made a meal of it but you cannot blame him.
“He is the one who went in dangerously and is saving himself.
“I expect at least to win the appeal, which will not make me totally happy but I would be gutted to lose Feghouli for three games.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and two other United players were also offside when the Swede scored the second goal.
Boss Jose Mourinho admitted his team, who got a sixth straight Prem win, did not play well.
He said: “This was not a very good performance.
“It’s very difficult to play football in these circumstances with 48 hours between matches.
“Not just hard for the team with ten, the team also with 11.
“My players were too tired to think well. A lot of wrong decisions.
“When you’re fresh you play simple. When you are not you play complicated.
“In the first half everything was complicated.”
Mourinho will not get carried away by his team’s great run.
But he could not resist a dig at Tottenham and Chelsea, who play tomorrow after extra rest.
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He added: “It’s two amazing teams with the privilege no one else had.
“They’re fresh, let’s go for a big match.”
West Ham boss Slaven Bilic reiterated Dimitri Payet is not for sale after being linked with Marseille.
He added: “We want to keep him.”