The bare facts are that Manchester United failed to secure a seventh successive win and missed the chance to end their 138-day stay in sixth place and Bournemouth secured a spirited draw to arrest the perception they are in freefall. Facts, though, do not provide the entire picture on an afternoon of controversy. Its consequences could be considerable, and not just if they cost United Champions League football.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic claims Tyrone Mings ‘jumped into my elbow’ Read more

A game of compelling drama may yet be reviewed by the FA. If so, Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s missed penalty could prove his last major contribution in domestic football for a month. The profligate Swede had an off day; indeed, it was a day when he might have been sent off for the first time as a United player, but the 14th in his career. He also could have required medical treatment or been the match-winner. Much revolved around him, in contentious and yet inconclusive fashion. Ibrahimovic was sinner and sinned against, elbowing Tyrone Mings after being stamped on by the Bournemouth defender.

It summed up an anarchic affair that neither was expelled by the referee Kevin Friend, who dismissed two others for seemingly lesser offences. He seemed to forget he had booked Andrew Surman twice before eventually brandishing a red card. He also sent Bournemouth’s assistant manager, Jason Tindall, to the stands for protesting on the pitch at half-time as well as awarding two penalties and giving the sense he was guessing after losing control of the game.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Zlatan Ibrahimovic clashed with Tyrone Mings shortly after the Bournemouth defender appeared to stamp on the striker. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Albeit unwittingly, he upstaged Artur Boruc, who delivered a masterclass in defiance. Bournemouth’s mercurial goalkeeper was culpable for Gareth McAuley’s winner for West Bromwich Albion last week. He made amends in magnificent fashion and, if the headline save came when pushing Ibrahimovic’s spot-kick to safety, the Swede, Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba could all offer other evidence of his excellence.

“Boruc made an amazing performance,” said José Mourinho. Opposing goalkeepers have shown a propensity to prosper at Old Trafford this season and Boruc’s display carried echoes of Tom Heaton’s brilliance for Burnley on an afternoon to stir unwanted memories for United of frustrating home draws.

“The story of creating lots of chances but not scoring goals is old but applies perfectly in these matches,” said a rueful Mourinho. “Against Hull, Burnley, Bournemouth, Stoke, the reality is that we are losing too many points at home.”

He was in reflective mood, the firebrand who courted trouble in autumn blaming his charges instead. “In the second half, we lost quality and vision,” Mourinho said. “We played phenomenal in the first half and should have been winning 3-0 or 4-0. It ended 1-1. Who can I blame? Ourselves. Nobody else. We missed big chances.”

A rout was threatened, yet the only initial chaos was in the Bournemouth back four. They ended up defending defiantly, clinging on to just their third point of 2017, but they could have been two goals adrift after four minutes. It ranked as a surprise that it took United 23 minutes to break through, when a defender showed a striker’s predatory instincts. As Antonio Valencia miscued his shot, Marcos Rojo reacted, redirecting it beyond Boruc for his first Premier League goal.

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But the sense United’s problems can be self-inflicted surfaced when a ring-rusty Phil Jones, making his comeback after six games out, tripped the sharper Marc Pugh. Josh King, granted only 14 minutes during his two cameos as a United player, converted the resulting penalty.

Then the excitement escalated. Mings trod on Ibrahimovic; accidentally, he claimed. From the subsequent corner, the Swede, who had already been cautioned, elbowed the defender; unintentionally, he claimed. Surman, the other man booked before, pushed the striker, although not with sufficient force to send a man of his size tumbling in such melodramatic fashion.

It was nevertheless deliberate and Friend responded by showing a yellow card to Surman and lecturing Ibrahimovic. Then, when he seemed set to repeat Graham Poll’s infamous error in the 2006 World Cup when he booked Josip Simunic twice while allowing him to stay on the pitch, Friend belatedly gave the Bournemouth captain his marching orders, albeit after a 160-second hiatus when he appeared to be reminded by both Rooney and his officiating colleagues. A second departure soon followed as the protests by Bournemouth’s assistant manager, Jason Tindall, earned him a seat in the stands.

Friend managed a second double, awarding another penalty when Adam Smith was rather harshly deemed to have handled Pogba’s volley. Up stepped Ibrahimovic. Boruc guessed right and dived to his right. “For four months, the players decide not to train for penalties because we never have penalties,” claimed Mourinho. It sounded implausible but no more implausible than many of the events that preceded it.