Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has hit back at Jose Mourinho and Frank Lampard over claims his Manchester United team have been lucky with VAR decisions.
Tottenham Hotspur boss Mourinho said United have been fortunate "more than once" this season while Lampard used a news conference on Friday to highlight decisions he believes have benefited Solskjaer's team.
But ahead of the FA Cup semifinal with Lampard's Chelsea on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+, U.S. only), Solskjaer fired off a list of grievances of his own, while also including a subtle dig at former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez and the Spaniard's famous rant at Sir Alex Ferguson about "facts".
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"How long have we got? I can sit here for hours now and try to talk about this," Solskjaer said. "It looks like there's a narrative, it looks like people want to influence whoever's making the decisions.
"I hear people talking about luck, that we've been lucky more than unlucky. If you look at the factual decisions -- I don't want to sound like a certain manager talking about facts -- but if you're offside you're offside, that's clear.
"Talking about lucky; the penalty we got against Tottenham in the last minute that was taken away from us, that might be two points for us. Talking about the red card that [Oriol] Romeu should have had against us when he got Mason Greenwood almost crippled, that should've been a red card. Maybe that would've helped us.
"Talking about Mark Noble when he should have been sent off against us when we lost at West Ham. Talking about the actual decision that is made that is against Man United, but is overturned and corrected. So it's actually me that should be complaining that we get decisions against us on the pitch by the on field referee."
United have seen seven goals originally scored against them disallowed by VAR this season, more than any other team in the Premier League.
For the VAR conspiracy theorists.
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) July 16, 2020
Most VAR decisions in favour: Man United 10
Most net: Man United 8
Most disallowed for opposition: Man United 7
Most subjective in favour: Crystal Palace, Man United 6
Highest net goals: Man United +7
Highest net subjective score: Man United +5
Lampard specifically highlighted a penalty awarded for a foul on Bruno Fernandes against Aston Villa and the decision not to penalise Victor Lindelof for a clumsy challenge in the area against Crystal Palace, prompting the Chelsea boss to say: "We seem to be in a period where, in terms of Manchester United, they've got a few in their favour."
Mike Dean will referee United's tie with Chelsea at Wembley with Michael Oliver acting as VAR and Solskjaer is confident they will not be influenced by Lampard's comments.
"There's a narrative there, but we just have to focus on our games," Solskjaer added. "We let other people talk about that. I don't want to go too much into it because I might be in trouble. I hope I'm not now.
"I'm pretty relaxed on these. Referees are going to be making objective decisions. They are not going to be influenced by any emotion in any way, so I don't think they'll read it [what Lampard said]."
Meanwhile, Solskjaer has confirmed that Luke Shaw will not be available at Wembley because of the ankle injury he picked up against Southampton, but there is hope Brandon Williams will be able to train on Saturday and be involved after suffering a cut eye in the same game.