Ole Gunnar Solskjaer questions linesman involvement during Arsenal draw

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer queried the intervention of the linesman after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was retrospectively awarded a goal by VAR in Manchester United’s 1-1 draw against Arsenal.

Aubameyang was flagged for offside by assistant referee Scott Ledger as he cut in from the right before lifting over David De Gea but technology correctly ruled the Arsenal forward was being played onside by Harry Maguire.

While Solskjaer had no qualms with the decision being overturned, with the goal cancelling out Scott McTominay’s opener, he feels Ashley Young and perhaps even De Gea may have been swayed by the linesman’s flag being raised.

The Norwegian said: “Ashley certainly holds his hand up because he can look straight at the linesman. Maybe he hesitates a little bit.

“He could have probably got a block in and that probably would have helped David but that’s no consolation for us now because it’s a perfectly good goal for them.

“(The linesman) probably should have kept the flag down. He made an impact on the situation by raising the flag. But I’m for the right decisions and they definitely deserved their goal.”

Solskjaer was further aggrieved that United were not awarded a penalty shortly before Aubameyang’s leveller when a loose ball seemed to strike Sead Kolasinac’s left arm, which was not deemed deliberate.

He added: “Loads of the penalty decisions now the refs, if you don’t (give) it, you can’t go back and have it. But it’s a work in progress.”

The two sides have contested some barn-burners through the years but their meeting on Monday night was devoid of quality for large spells, albeit with the pouring rain making conditions tricky.

The result lifted United on to nine points in the Premier League although it marks the first time they have failed to reach double figures after seven fixtures in 30 years.

An upbeat Solskjaer said: “There’s many things that we look at and many things that give me a lot of confidence. We can talk about performances but it’s the results that matter. Six out of the seven games were good performances.

“We need to learn to win these games. We know that this team is going to be improving. I thought we saw some excellent performances from Scotty, Andreas (Pereira), you can see Axel (Tuanzebe) is going to be a top, top player, so some very positive things.

“We’re a bit disappointed with only one point but probably that’s because you’re winning the game 1-0. Then again, both teams probably didn’t deserve to lose.”

Arsenal boss Unai Emery was satisfied with the result, saying: “We wanted to win because we were thinking it was a very good opportunity to get three points but after 90 minutes it’s a fair result for both (teams).

“That result can be a good point if we win on Sunday against Bournemouth at home. We will analyse the positive things and things to improve.

“Defensively I thought we were very competitive and offensively in some moments maybe we could do better to create more chances.”