“I couldn’t breathe for a second” – Aston Villa forward Leon Bailey expresses disappointment with what Manchester United star did to him during 3-1 win 

Aston Villa ace Leon Bailey has claimed that he was elbowed twice by Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez and criticized the linesman for not taking any action against him.

Manchester United endured a 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon (November 6). Bailey, Lucas Digne, and Jacob Ramsey found the back of the net for the Villans, while Ramsey’s own goal counted in United’s favor.

Bailey, who scored Villa’s opening goal in the seventh minute, was being closely marked by United center-back Martinez. In the 63rd minute, he was supposedly on the receiving end of a couple of blows into the midriff by Martinez. The forward was down on the turf for a while, but VAR refused to check for violent conduct. In the aftermath of Villa’s victory, Bailey took to Twitter, questioning the match officials and slamming the VAR system for not interfering.

Bailey tweeted:

“Very disappointed in the referees today, I couldn’t breath for a second after getting elbowed twice in my rib. The linesman went on to say I shouldn’t be saying anything because I was doing just the same thing to Martinez. Sometimes I don’t understand why we got VAR. SMH.”

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Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag rues over “unacceptable” start against Aston Villa

In both halves, the Red Devils were slow to get off the mark against Aston Villa. The hosts came charging off the gates on both occasions, got their goals, and practically killed the game. Bailey and Digne scored for Villa in the seventh and 11th minutes, respectively, while Ramsey scored four minutes into the second half.

Speaking after the game, Ten Hag called his team’s performance unacceptable, claiming that they shot themselves in the foot by allowing Villa a brisk start. He told Manchester United’s official outlet:

“We lost the game at the start of the first half, start of the second half. That’s not acceptable. You have to be ready for the game, we were not. We have to be more sharp. I said it was up to us. It was up to us. We didn’t keep the ball.

“We let them run at the start of the game, we didn’t get the right organization but especially we didn’t follow the rules in defending and we lost battles. It's not acceptable. A player has to take responsibility to be ready. It looked like they were fresher and that's never acceptable.”

The result, which came in Unai Emery’s debut as Aston Villa manager, marked the Villans’ first win over Manchester United (at home) in 27 years. The two sides will meet again in three days' time (November 10), in the EFL Cup third round, at Old Trafford.