Source: Statista

Manchester United fans have to hear on a regular basis that their club has a twelfth man on the pitch in the form of the referee. Penalty awards come under special levels of scrutiny, with the accusation being that United are gifted match saving goals via soft penalties far too often. In bad news for Man U fans looking to argue back, new analysis by CIES Football Observatory has revealed that since the 2018/19 season, their team has been on the receiving end of a penalty decision with the highest frequency of all clubs in Europe’s Big-5 leagues.

As this infographic shows, United won a penalty every 299 minutes of play on average over the assessed period. For a direct Premier League comparison, local rivals Man City had to wait an average of 434 minutes between their penalties, while Liverpool won one every 574. The clubs waiting the longest in the league were Burnley (1,474), Newcastle (998 and Wolves (also 998). Burnley’s painfully long wait is also the longest of the Big-5 league teams by a long way. It could be worse though – The Championship’s Bristol City waited an average of 1,834 minutes.