"It's like a curse against us," claimed Erik ten Hag in the aftermath of one of the most bizarre FA Cup semi-finals the Wembley arch has ever seen. It's certainly felt like there is a curse on Manchester United this season, but on this occasion Ten Hag was complaining about the number of penalty decisions that go against his team.
His ire on Sunday was at the fact that Aaron Wan-Bissaka was penalised for handball in injury time of normal time, but when United appealed for a handball of their own in extra time, they didn't get the decision.
"At 3-3 it’s crazy that decision. Then we should get a penalty to make it 4-3, that was more a handball than the penalty we conceded," said Ten Hag, somehow managing to keep a straight face.
This is an approach we've got used to now. Ten Hag believes every marginal call should fall United's way and maybe that could be portrayed as a positive, but at some point, some self-awareness is required. The penalty call on Wan-Bissaka was probably a little harsh. The claim for handball against a Coventry City defender marking Rasmus Hojlund at a corner was sheer desperation and a classic diversionary tactic.
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It happened amid the chaos of extra-time and was waved away by the VAR so quickly I didn't even get to make a note of which Coventry player it was. While the arm was outstretched as he jumped, the ball clearly hit the top of his sleeve shirt or his shoulder. The rules couldn't be clearer on that.
It was such a moment of controversy that the official Manchester United website didn't mention it in their match report or their live blog of the game. That tells you all you need to know and Ten Hag's desperation to paint a collapse against a Championship side as another injustice isn't befitting of the office of United manager.
The rest of Ten Hag's quote after disputing those two decisions was: "That happens many times. Chelsea two crazy penalties, Liverpool penalty very debatable. It’s like a curse against us."
Those three calls were probably marginal, albeit they were never likely to be overturned once they were given. It's also safe to say that if United were on the end of the fouls Ten Hag would have been demanding penalties were given.
Given United survived losing this game thanks to one of the most marginal VAR offside calls of the entire season, the Dutchman's bitter complaints felt more than a little disingenuous. It's worth rewinding to September and a similarly tight call that went against United at Arsenal, when what looked like a winning goal for Alejandro Garnacho was disallowed.
"Disallowed goal from Garnacho; I think wrong angle, and I think it's onside," Ten Hag claimed, disputing the accuracy of the technology. On a call that was at least as tight yesterday, this time in favour of his team, he remained strangely silent.
You can understand Ten Hag wanting to talk up the fact his team are into a second successive FA Cup final and while the collapse against Coventry City was embarrassing, it doesn't take away from the thrilling win against Liverpool in the previous round or the gutsy success at Nottingham Forest.
To try and spin this game as another injustice against his team just isn't the case. Only United can take the blame for what happened in the final 20 minutes at Wembley and despite what Ten Hag says, it is Coventry who should have left the national stadium with a sense of injustice.
Instead, Mark Robins was phlegmatic in his own press conference, joking that if Haji Wright had cut his toenails it wouldn't have gone to penalties. There wasn't the slightest hint of bitterness from Robins despite the cruelty of the outcome and no complaints about the decisions in the game.
The same couldn't be said of the winning manager.
