Bruno Fernandes\u2019s 21st Premier League assist, recorded from a first-half corner in Manchester United\u2019s final league game, has become the focus of a narrow but persistent dispute.<\/p>\n
Fernandes later admitted: “Jonny believed more than me in that set piece we prepared for Patrick because I was not so sure he would be able to score with his head,” and the delivery found Dorgu, who did get his head on the ball. Replays showed the header strike the underside of the crossbar before the ball bounced against the outstretched glove of Brighton\u2019s Bart Verbruggen. Manchester United finished the match 3\u20130.<\/p>\n
That sequence prompted debate because Opta\u2019s in-house guidance is clear: “In the event of an own goal … an assist will not be awarded.” Several outlets contacted the Premier League seeking clarification on whether the sequence should be classified as an own goal for the goalkeeper and therefore deny Fernandes the landmark assist that surpasses the previous joint record held by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne.<\/p>\n
The Premier League response was brief. “It was determined a Dorgu goal yesterday,” a spokesperson first told football.london. “Initially by Opta, then no change from the Goal Accreditation Panel.” The panel, previously known as The Dubious Goals Committee, is described by the Premier League as a mysterious trio which “usually consists of a representative of the PGMOL and two football experts,” and it upheld the decision to credit Dorgu with the goal.<\/p>\n
Dorgu\u2019s effort came off the crossbar and struck Verbruggen\u2019s wrist almost immediately, leaving limited scope to determine whether the ball would have crossed the line without the goalkeeper\u2019s intervention. The Premier League elected to stand by the accredited scorer and the assist allocation.<\/p>\n
Fernandes marked the milestone respectfully. “It was already special being in their [Henry and De Bruyne] company,” he said, and later shared a social video showing their shirts alongside his with the caption: “Inspired by those who set the standard.” There was no animosity from those he surpassed. Steven Bartlett contacted the Arsenal legend before interviewing him for his podcast and published Henry\u2019s warm appraisal. “Please send my regards to him!” the retired World Cup winner wrote. “I love him! Braino Fernandes!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fernandes\u2019s 21st assist drew scrutiny after Dorgu\u2019s header hit the bar and clipped Verbruggen\u2019s glove<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[773,179,172],"tags":[1162,1637,342],"class_list":["post-14056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brighton-hove-albion","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-assists","tag-bruno-fernandes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}