Ian Wright says it is another Manchester United player’s fault Antony kicked out and nearly got sent off

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Manchester United winger Antony had a Manchester derby to forget in the 3-0 loss to City.

Even though he was only on the pitch for a few minutes, Antony managed to leave a negative impact on the derby.

The 86th minute substitute kicked out wildly at Jeremy Doku before confronting the Belgian, and was given a yellow card.

He was heavily criticised, while former referee Dermot Gallagher says Antony was very fortunate not to have been sent off.

Antony out of control

Antony looked riled up before he came on, seen shaking his head in frustration on the bench before being introduced.

By time he came on Manchester United had already lost the game, 3-0 down, and Antony was in no mood to let City indulge themselves.

But rather than being a measured, calculated foul, his yellow card and subsequent reaction told a story of a player who was out of control emotionally.

Antony foul blamed on Bruno Fernandes

Antony must take responsibility for his own actions. That’s our view. But an alternative viewpoint comes from former Premier League striker Ian Wright.

Wright told Premier League productions that Bruno Fernandes should be taking the blame as captain, having doled out a few questionable late challenges himself as City ran away with the game.

He said: “Antony come on and his contribution was to kick out at Doku like that, that was really bad, but the example of the captain is seeping in. He’s looking at the captain doing it, that’s the captain.”

Fellow pundit Owen Hargreaves noted on Fernandes’ own challenges: “I think he tried to kick out to show to fans ‘I care’ but the problem is it comes across in not the right way.”

Does Wright have a point? Probably. We can both be right. Antony must be responsible for his own actions, but when his team captain is doing the same, it does point the way for his teammates to follow suit.

And there’s not necessarily too much wrong with it. We want our players to show some fight, even if it was too little too late in this game. Better that than giving up.