Manchester United boss Marc Skinner reacts to Jayde Riviere red card against Arsenal

Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner said he had no argument with referee Abigail Byrne’s decision to send off Jayde Riviere against Arsenal.

Riviere picked up her second yellow card of the day in the 65th minute, meaning United played the last third of the game with only ten on the pitch.

But Skinner had no quibble with the decision.

“No, watching both [bookings] back, I can’t argue with the referee’s decision. Maybe it was a bit quick, but she [Jayde] puts herself in a position where the referee can make a decision. So regardless of how hard or soft I thought it was, we just can’t put ourselves in that position,” he said to Sky Sports.

“It’s something we’ll learn from and, as I say, move forward.”

And he praised the group’s efforts against Arsenal , saying: “I felt that we were fantastic in our defensive work, and we needed to be. We put ourselves in that situation [going down to 10 players]. It’s something we’ll obviously address and have conversations about how we grow from it,” Skinner added.

“The team, the way that we finished there with that resilient mentality, it’s the foundation of anything you do with the ball.

“There’s always the second half to attack but once we go down to 10 players, it becomes a challenge and a fight. It just shows my team are fully up for that fight.”

United’s next fight comes at the weekend when they face Burnley in the fourth round of the Women’s FA Cup.

“I think we’ll be better with the ball, but a point away at the Emirates is OK for this game, especially going down to 10 players.”

Asked about the key learnings from the performance, he continued to praise the team’s mentality.

“For sure it’s the mentality of our players already. They’ve had a winter break and come straight back to work for each other, for the togetherness of the team, so that is huge for us and the spirit of this group of players.

“We need to be more ruthless in the final third and we need to get those build-up strategies quicker and that’s something we’ll work on this week.”