เหตุผลที่แอสซิสต์ทำสถิติใหม่ของบรูโน่ แฟร์นันเดส ถึงกับถูกวิพากษ์วิจารณ์อย่างรุนแรง

As Bruno Fernandes lined up a first-half corner kick in Manchester United’s final Premier League game of the season, his overarching emotion was one of doubt. Without the aerial menace of Casemiro to aim at, Michael Carrick’s assistant Jonny Evans had choreographed the dead ball opportunity for Patrick Dorgu to break free and attack the cross. Fernandes was not convinced. “Jonny believed more than me in that set piece we prepared for Patrick because I was not so sure he would be able to score with his head,” the playmaker would later admit. Dorgu did duly get his head on the ball and Fernandes was credited with his 21st Premier League assist of the season, surpassing the record jointly held by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne. Yet, those feelings of doubt would dominate the thoughts of many onlookers who had a closer inspection of the move. Replays of the sequence showed Dorgu clattering his header off the underside of the crossbar before the ball bounced against the outstretched glove of Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen. Many argued that scenario should be classed as an own goal for the Dutch goalkeeper, thereby robbing Fernandes of his landmark assist. As Opta’s in-house definitions stress: “In the event of an own goal ... an assist will not be awarded.” The Premier League, however, had a different take. The Premier League were contacted by several outlets questioning the validity of Fernandes’s assist in the aftermath of Manchester United’s 3–0 win. The competition’s response was curt and concise: nothing to see here. “It was determined a Dorgu goal yesterday,” a spokesperson first told football.london. “Initially by Opta, then no change from the Goal Accreditation Panel.” The Goal Accreditation Panel—formerly known by the far superior moniker of The Dubious Goals Committee—is a mysterious trio which “usually consists of a representative of the PGMOL and two football experts,” according to the Premier League’s rather vague description. Dorgu’s effort comes off the crossbar and hits Verbruggen’s wrist almost immediately, leaving little room to decipher whether the trajectory of the ball would have taken it over the line without the goalkeeper’s intervention. It’s an easy option for the Premier League to play it safe and give the goal to Dorgu to avoid the controversy of chalking off Fernandes’s record. Swiftly after the final whistle, Fernandes paid homage to the two icons he had surpassed. “It was already special being in their [Henry and De Bruyne’s] company,” he reflected. “We are talking about two players that made the Premier League so great, and they were two of the greatest in the Premier League.” After a night to reflect on his achievement, Fernandes took his admiration one step further, releasing a video of social media showing the jerseys of Henry and De Bruyne pinned up alongside his own beneath the caption: “Inspired by those who set the standard.” Despite the controversial nature of his decisive delivery, there was no ill will from Henr