Former PL referee: 3 penalty decisions made during Manchester derby were correct

Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher believes that all three penalty decisions made during the derby between Manchester United and Manchester City were correct - but believes the visitors could have seen Andreas Pereira set off.

United emerged victorious in their trip across the city to the Etihad Stadium, with Marcus Rashford tucking home from the penalty spot and Anthony Martial doubling his side's advantage just six minutes later.

However, City fans felt aggrieved that two penalty shouts were turned down by referee Anthony Taylor, as they perceived Fred and Victor Lindelof to have been guilty of handballs.

Gallagher disagrees though and explained why he feels the decision not to award a penalty for either incident was the correct one on Saturday afternoon.

"Covered in the new law is that if a player is falling and his hand is on the ground to support his body, which it is as it strikes his arm, you can't give a penalty unless you're convinced that he has deliberately done that, which would be very difficult to convince anybody in that situation," he said about the incident involving Fred, then going on to share his verdict on Lindelof.

"Again, it strikes his body and comes up. When the shot comes in, Lindelof goes to block, which he does, and it flies up and hits him on the elbow. There's no doubt about that, but it hits him on the body. He's got nowhere to go."

However, Gallagher does believe that United were fortunate to end the match with 11 players on the field as he explained that Pereira should have been sent off for his challenge on Raheem Sterling after 74 minutes.

"I said on Saturday and I still say now, this is as close as you can get to not having a red card because there's no doubt it was a hack and it was a bit more than a trip wasn't it? It was reminiscent of three years ago with Granit Xhaka at Arsenal [straight red after a similar tackle on Modou Barrow].

"The difference there is that Xhaka is further away and he's reached for him, and I think that's what has saved Pereira being close to Sterling. That's as close to a red card as you could possibly get for me."