Bruno Fernandes has slammed the decision to send him off in Manchester United’s defeat to Tottenham, revealing James Maddison agreed it was harsh for him to be shown a red card.

United needed to get back to winning ways against Tottenham after drawing against FC Twente in midweek, but Spurs took the lead after just three minutes through Brennan Johnson.

The tone for an awful afternoon at Old Trafford was set from that moment and Fernandes received a red card at the end of the first half to add to United’s problems.

Dejan Kulusevski made it 2-0 three minutes after half-time and Dominic Solanke rubbed salt in United’s wounds when making it 3-0 from a corner in the 77th minute.

United were dominated by Tottenham and thousands of fans made an early exit from Old Trafford as an under-pressure Erik ten Hag watched on.

The decision to keep Ten Hag in the summer following FA Cup success split opinion and the conversation around the manager’s future is growing louder again after an awful start.

After the game, Fernandes volunteered to speak to Sky Sports and he hit out at the decision to send him off. “I let my teammates down,” he said. “I do appreciate everything they did on the pitch and obviously it was tough for them. We didn’t start the game well with 11 vs 11.

“Then we got the situation with the red card and I think they did very well. We conceded another two goals and it was difficult to cover all the spaces, but I think there are many good things we can take away from this. The resilience of the team was there and I’m proud of the team.

“Obviously nobody likes to be sent off and it’s not a good feeling seeing my teammates running a lot and trying a lot to get a result because that’s what they were trying to do.

“We ended up conceding another two goals but they tried everything. Part of slipping and going in, I didn’t go into the tackle with studs and I take him with my ankle.

“It’s a clear foul but never a red card and that’s my feeling. He [Maddison] said it was a foul but never a red card. I think on the eyes of everyone you can see it’s never a red card.

“If this is a red card, we have to look at many other incidents and I see many incidents of Onana getting kicked and I never see it so quickly coming as a red card. It’s never a red card.

“The contact is not that strong and if he wants to give a yellow because it’s a counter-attack, I agree, and then I don’t understand why VAR doesn’t call the referee to the screen.

“We found a lot of spaces but couldn’t connect [before the sending off] and I think it wasn’t always like one touch more, not quick passes, not quick link up and we give the ball away too many times. The goal comes from one bad pass from me and then they score the goal.”