West Brom 0-3 Man Utd

by Simon Williams

at The Hawthorns

West Brom manager Pepe Mel bemoaned the ref's decision not to send off Robin van Persie in their 3-0 defeat to Manchester United.

The Reds took a first-half lead when Phil Jones rose unmarked in the area to head home a van Persie free kick.

The Dutchman now has 11 goals and three assists in 16 Premier League starts this season.

Wayne Rooney doubled the visitors' lead midway through the second half, ghosting in at the far post to head a Rafael cross past Ben Foster.

Substitute Danny Welbeck made sure of the victory with a cool finish eight minutes from time to ease the pressure on United manager David Moyes.

But it was Jon Moss's decision not to produce a second yellow card for van Persie for a challenge on Steven Reid with the game still at 1-0, and just minutes after he had been booked for a tackle on Morgan Amalfitano, that left Mel disappointed.

"With the red card to van Persie, the game would have changed and been completely different," said the under-pressure West Brom manager, whose side have drawn with both Liverpool and Chelsea after being 1-0 down in recent home games.

"It was a clear second yellow card. I didn't speak to the referee after - there was no point. Once the referee has blown (the whistle) there is no going back on the decision."

Van Persie was substituted shortly after the challenge, a move Moyes felt was necessary to avoid his side being reduced to 10 men.

He said: "Robin knew exactly what was happening. I told him earlier I had to take him off but it was the right decision.

"It was a foul, it wasn't a second booking, but I just felt that one more foul could have led to something else.

"It made my job easy. He played 90 minutes for Holland in midweek and I was never going to play him for another full 90 minutes again," said Moyes.