Manchester United v Chelsea: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hits back at Frank Lampard over VAR 'complaints'

Top four rivals set aside league duties on Sunday and face off in the FA Cup semi-finals

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, left, and Frank Lampard go head-to-head on Sunday when Manchester United face Chelsea in the FA CUp semi-finals. Reuters

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has responded to Frank Lampard's comments that VAR has favoured Manchester United this season by claiming it should be United who have a right "complain" about decisions going against them.

Ahead of Sunday's FA Cup semi-final, Chelsea manager Lampard said United have benefited from contentious VAR decisions and poor on-pitch decisions. He suggested a "clear and obvious decision" went United's way on Thursday when Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha was fouled but no penalty was awarded.

As well as FA Cup opponents, United and Chelsea are embroiled in a fierce battle for the Premier League top four. With two games remaining, fifth-placed United trail Chelsea, in third, by one point.

United manager Solskjaer has hit back at Lampard's claims by insisting United have also been unlucky with decisions.

"I can sit here for hours now and try to talk about this. It looks like there's a narrative, it looks like people want to influence whoever is making the decisions," the Norwegian told reporters on Saturday.

"I hear people talking about luck, that we've been lucky more than unlucky. If you look at the factual decisions - I don't want to sound like a certain manager talking about facts - but if you're offside, you're offside, that's clear."

Solskjaer listed incidents in which he felt United were hard done by, describing how a late penalty against Tottenham Hotspur was overturned and how Southampton's Oriol Romeu and West Ham's Mark Noble should have been sent off for rash tackles.

"So it's actually me that should be complaining that we get decisions against us on the pitch by the on-pitch referee," Solskjaer said.

"There's a narrative there but we have to focus on our games, we let other people talk about that. I don't want to go too much into it because I might be in trouble.

"I'm pretty relaxed on these and referees are going to be making objective decisions and are not going to be influenced by any emotion in any way."

Left back Luke Shaw will miss the semi-final and his replacement Brandon Williams is also doubtful after suffering a facial injury against Southampton on Monday.

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