Manchester United have an easy Cristiano Ronaldo decision to make after Bruno Fernandes missed penalty

Bruno Fernandes’ missed penalty contributed to a second defeat in a row at the weekend for Manchester United. During the second half of United’s defeat at Arsenal, United were awarded a penalty, with the score at 2-1.

It was the best chance they had of equalising. However, it was Bruno Fernandes who stepped up, instead of the usual penalty kick taker, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Fernandes’ penalty hit the post and was followed by jubilant scenes from Arsenal, in particular goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, which drew comparisons by BT Sport commentator Steve McManaman to how Martin Keown reacted to Ruud van Nistelrooy’s missed penalty in 2003, a game which Ronaldo also played in.

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United went on to lose the game 3-1, leaving them sixth after back to back defeats and interim manager Ralf Rangnick conceding that United are very unlikely to make the top four. Fernandes was the usual penalty taker for United before the return of Ronaldo last summer but going forward, who will be on duty?

Prior to this season, Fernandes had only missed one penalty for United but this season he has already missed two, both coming at critical moments. The first one was in the last minute at home to Aston Villa in September with United trailing 1-0, where he skied the ball into the Stretford End.

This weekend at the Emirates he sent the keeper the wrong way but failed to hit the target once again. Fernandes has a penalty run-up that aims to deceive the goalkeeper with lots of small steps before a jump just before he makes contact with the ball, similarly to Jorginho at Chelsea, who also missed a penalty this weekend.

So far this season, Fernandes has failed to hit the