Zimpapers Logo

BRUNO FERNANDES has been an absolute revelation since his January arrival at Manchester United.

With Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men continuing the long post-Sir Alex Ferguson struggle, the Old Trafford boss needed a boost. And since arriving in Manchester, Fernandes has scored 11 times in all competitions.

But a staggering SEVEN of those have been penalties.

The remarkable stat has divided neutral fans, who have been left wondering: is he really an elite player or just the beneficiary of some extraordinary good fortune?

After all, Fernandes actually won — and converted — a penalty for stamping on Aston Villa star Ezra Konsi last month. With United struggling to keep up their red-hot form in the Europa League earlier this week — taken to extra-time by Danish side Copenhagen — it was left up to Fernandes to save the day again.

After Copenhagen stopper Karl-Johan Johnsson made an extraordinary 13 SAVES on the night, he was finally beaten from the spot.

Football fans weren’t even shocked in the end, with hoards of social media users predicting there would be a penalty incoming all game.

And there’s little surprise there — as Man Utd have been awarded 21 penalties in 2019-20 alone, easily the highest tally in all of Europe’s top five leagues.

Now, in the summer of 2020, fans can’t believe United’s luck in being awarded countless penalties — because they’re dead-certs to score them.

However, that wasn’t even remotely the case early on in 2019-20.

In fact, United conspired to miss FOUR of their first seven spot-kicks last season. Marcus Rashford missed two of those, with Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial missing one apiece.

Incredibly, two of those misses came in the same game against Norwich — with Rashford and Martial denied.

However, since that cold streak, Man Utd have scored every single one of their 14 penalties awarded.

And seven of those have been from the boot of Portuguese wiz Fernandes.

Rashford has netted five in that run, with Juan Mata and Mason Greenwood also slotting home from 12 yards.

Of course, scoring a penalty isn’t as easy as it looks — and it does look particularly simple when flying off the boot of Fernandes.

But you have to wonder where United would be without their extraordinary penalty tally in 2019-20. — The Sun