Despite a strong Chelsea display against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side at Stamford Bridge, it was the visitors who headed home with all three points thanks to a goals in each half from Anthony Martial and Harry Maguire, although VAR also played a big part in deciding this fixture.

Maguire could quite easily have seen red in the first half following a collision with Michy Batshuayi by the Chelsea dugout, where it appeared that the United skipper aimed a kick at the Blues forward. VAR was used but no action was taken.

While Chelsea had two goals ruled out by VAR after lengthy checks. The first, a fine finish from Kurt Zouma, was overturned because Azpilicueta was alleged to have pushed Brandon Williams in the build-up, despite it looking as if our skipper was actually pushed into the United defender by Fred.

Cesar explained the reasons why he felt we lost the game as well as reflecting on that key incident in particular.

‘In tricky moments we have lost the game,’ said the Spaniard.

‘We conceded just before half-time, despite dominating the first half, and apart from a few counter-attacks, they didn’t really caused us any problems.

‘We created quite a few clear chances, we dominated the ball and we were looking good. Then we were punished just before half-time and suddenly things become a lot more difficult. They scored a second goal from a set-play and then things become even tougher to overcome.

‘We tried to push until the end but we were not able to overcome the score.

‘VAR is there and in the rules but what disappointments me is that the big decisions are looked at by a referee away from the stadium who is watching on a monitor. I have said many times before that I think the referee at the stadium should go over to a monitor at the side of the pitch to make the decisions.

‘The goal that Zouma scored, of course I push into Williams but it is only because Fred pushes me clearly into him. There are four referees on the pitch but they didn’t see anything. If the referee then went to a monitor at the side of the pitch, it takes 30 seconds and I think the right decision will be made. The referee on the pitch has to be the one who makes the final decision.’

The captain went into further detail about why he felt Zouma’s goal – which would have levelled the scores at the time – should have counted and why he was the innocent party in that passage of play that led to the VAR check and subsequent overturn of decision.

‘100 per cent my intention when I ran to the front post was not to push Williams and take him out of the play, because the ball goes over our heads,’ explained Cesar.

‘I am not saying that Fred’s push on me is a penalty but clearly it had implications because it was given as a foul by me on Williams for a push.

‘When you have four referees at the stadium but the overall decision goes to the VAR referee, it is difficult. I am not disappointed with the VAR referee at all, what I am disappointed with is the fact that we are not using the system in the correct way in my opinion.

‘We are really disappointed with the result but we can’t blame VAR or anything like that. It was our own fault because we had chances to win.

‘From this point, we have a massive derby on Saturday and we have lost all the advantage that we had on our hands. We have let that slip and now we have some really big, decisive games coming up starting with a massive derby on Saturday at Stamford Bridge.’