Cunha's deflected leveller wrecks Fulham's day

A point United barely deserved

Manchester United looked beaten for most of the afternoon at Craven Cottage. Fulham had done everything right against a side still searching for consistency under Michael Carrick, and with the clock ticking into the 89th minute they were seconds from a result that would have been their first league win of the campaign.

Then Cunha happened. His strike took a heavy deflection on its way past the Fulham goalkeeper, according to Sky Sports, turning a routine defeat into a share of the points that United will feel lucky to have. It is the kind of moment that changes a weekend rather than a season, but for a United side sitting 12th in the Premier League on five points from five games, any point that stops the bleeding matters.

Arbeloa's post-match blast

What followed mattered just as much as the goal itself. Alvaro Arbeloa used his press conference to launch into the officials, and CaughtOffside reports the Fulham manager accused the match officials of favouring Manchester United, comments strong enough that the outlet flagged the risk of FA punishment. The exact wording of Arbeloa's remarks has not been fully detailed, but the tone left little doubt about how he felt walking away from a draw his side had all but won.

Managers rage against decisions all the time. Fewer of them do it in terms pointed enough to draw the governing body's attention, and Arbeloa now finds himself facing scrutiny for words rather than for the result itself.

What it means for both sides

For Fulham, the frustration is obvious: BBC Sport frames it plainly as a first league win denied in the final minute, the sort of collapse that lingers in a dressing room far longer than a normal defeat would. For United, Carrick gets a point that keeps the international break from arriving on the back of a defeat, with the club sitting 12th on 5 points from 5 games, a side still searching for rhythm rather than one in real form.

Cunha's role adds a layer worth watching beyond this one afternoon. In the seasons we have on record he has been a reliable source of goals and assists across Wolves and now United, and a stoppage-time leveller at Craven Cottage, deflected or not, is exactly the sort of contribution that keeps a forward's price rising rather than falling.

The bigger fallout

None of that will soften how Craven Cottage felt in the final minutes. Fulham were seconds from three points that would have meant something in a table where every early result carries extra weight, and instead they leave with one, a grievance, and a manager whose comments about the officials are now somebody else's problem to review.