Slaven Bilic says Sofiane Feghouli's unfair red card killed West Ham in defeat to Manchester United

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic felt referee Mike Dean condemned his side to their 2-0 defeat at home to Manchester United on Monday (23 January) after he showed Sofiane Feghouli a straight red card for a challenge on Phil Jones in the 15<sup>th minute of the game.

The Croatian boss said Jones's contribution to the collision was more dangerous than Feghouli's and also lamented the referee's decision to allow United's second goal, by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, despite the fact that the striker appeared to be offside.

"I am with the majority of what the football fans think and that is it was never a red card, to be fair. It was a challenge from both of them and it is the other way around. The more dangerous foul is by Jones, because he went with the scissors, " Bilic said.

"Feghouli very rarely makes a foul and his foot was not high in the air. It's not deliberate and, for me, that was the crucial decision in the game. That early, it killed us and killed the game and put the game into a totally different perspective.

"The decision for the other one [to award Ibrahimovic's goal] was totally unfair to us and totally wrong."

The Hammers managed to react to Feghouli's dismissal and even had a couple of chances to take the lead through Michail Antonio and Manuel Lanzini. However, United substitute Juan Mata finally broke their resistance in the 63th minute before Ibrahimovic doubled the lead with 12 minutes remaining.

Bilic praised his team's performance but admitted his frustration at the final result. "We fought very hard and if we gave everything and I told the guys that if we put in this work for each other then we're going to be very good in the table," he said.

"Of course I'm gutted about the result but to do what we did with ten men against a very good team is very difficult. Despite that, we nearly found a way. We had one or two chances when it was still 0-0 and in these moments, when you are one man down, you have to score.

"We didn't score and then they scored and won the game. I'm very frustrated with the result and very frustrated with the way we lost it, but very proud of my team."