‘Stop big club bias’ - Aston Villa legend slams Man Utd penalty decision eight years after his rescinded red

Aston Villa legend Gabriel Agbonlahor has taken to social media to demand 'big club bias has to stop' after VAR failed to award Wolves a penalty against Manchester United on Monday night.

The final match of Gameweek 1 in this season's Premier League caused uproar after Red Devils goalkeeper Andre Onana clattered into Wolves defender Sasa Kalajdzic with just minutes left to play. VAR looked at the incident but didn't even call referee Simon Hooper over to the screen for a second look at the coming together.

After the match, new Wolves boss Gary O'Neil was left spitting feathers at the incident and he has since received an apology from Premier League referee general manager Jon Moss for the blunder. Hooper and VAR assistants Michael Salisbury and Richard West have also been removed from this weekend's fixtures.

The mistake led to many online questioning if a 'big club bias' existed in referring with the country's most prolific clubs often on the favourable side of decisions - and that's a view shared by former Villain Agbonlahor.

The star took to Instagram to share a picture of himself receiving a red card against Manchester United and wrote: "This big club bias has to stop! Do you remember when I got sent off for no reason? Red card was rescinded of course! Wolves fans must be fuming!! Absolute joke!!"

Agbonlahor was sent off during a match in 2014 for a tackle on United star Ashley Young but later saw it overturned after an appeal with the FA deeming referee Lee Mason's decision to be incorrect. Villa manager at the time, Paul Lambert, praised that 'common sense had prevailed' at that moment.

Speaking after the loss to Manchester United on Monday, O'Neil said: "We have just spoken to Jon Moss and fair play to him for coming straight out and apologising and saying it was a blatant penalty and should have been given.

"I spent the afternoon with him [on Monday], gave up a lot of my day and preparation around trying to understand the new guidelines and trying not to get myself booked on my first game with the new guidelines, which I failed in.

"Fair play to Jon for saying it was a clear and obvious error and he cannot believe that the on-field ref did not give it, cannot believe that VAR didn't intervene. It probably made me feel worse actually because once you know you are right you feel worse about leaving with nothing."