Video: Matteo Darmian brilliantly fools Micah Richards before corner
Manchester United's new signing, Matteo Darmian, blatantly fools Aston Villa captain, Micah Richards, to believe he has something on his cheek before a corner kick was taken during Friday night's encounter between the two sides.
Manchester United went on to win the game courtesy of an Adnan Januzaj goal halfway through the first half. In the same half, just before an Aston Villa corner kick was taken, Darmian appears to repeatedly point to Richards about something that's below his right eye. The English defender – definitely a little naive – falls for this and checks his right upper cheek by which time the corner is taken.
Looking through the angles of this incident, it's still unclear whether there was in fact something on Micah's face but if there wasn't anything, it looks like Darmian's little trick paid off. Richards – albeit held back by the Italian national – fails to sweetly connect to the corner after replays show Darmian wrapping his hand around the ex-Manchester City defender's neck pulling him back. Richards' showed his frustration on the incident by yelling at the referee but to no avail.
Villa manager Tim Sherwood brushed the incident off citing that there's always a 'chance' with these sort of decisions. "I think we had a shout for the penalty. I haven't watched it back," he said.
"I think you can get them. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you don't.
"I'm not going to be sticking pins in the referee. It's one of them. We didn't get it."
Victors Manchester United didn't particularly have the best of games but saw the result off nonetheless much to Louis van Gaal's pleasure. Aston Villa – who won their first game away to Bournemouth – had plenty of opportunities to win the game but some of long passes, especially from the back, were extremely wasteful.
See the incident over here: