Harry Maguire saw red and gave away a penalty just hours after his England recall as Man Utd were pegged back to draw 2-2 at Bournemouth.
Michael Carrick's side twice looked on course for an eighth win in 10 games under his management to strengthen their bid for Champions League qualification but in the end they were holding on for a point.
Maguire was shown a straight red card when he desperately grabbed at Evanilson with 12 minutes of normal time remaining. He gave away the spot-kick for Bournemouth's second equaliser of the night in the process, which was expertly converted by the Premier League's top-scoring teenager Junior Kroupi.
Afterwards, United captain Bruno Fernandes - who scored the opening goal from the spot - was adamant United should have had another penalty of their own when it was 1-0, noting the similarities between Adrien Truffert's tug on Amad Diallo and Maguire's foul on Evanilson.
Ref Stuart Attwell waved play on and, moments later, Ryan Christie found the bottom corner to make it 1-1.
"We get a penalty against [us] where, more or less, it's the same situation as Amad," Fernandes told Your Site.
"One is rewarded as a penalty, the other one not. I know it's difficult for the referee to give two penalties in the same game for the same team but what I don't understand is why VAR doesn't get involved in that situation.
"Either one is a penalty and the other one too or none of them is a penalty."
United did retake the lead thanks to a bizarre James Hill own goal but Maguire's sending off ultimately proved costly.
A point does at least extend the gap for third-placed United on Liverpool (six points) and Chelsea (seven points) before their away games on Saturday - but Carrick and co will leave the south coast feeling like they should have taken maximum points, given the chances they created.
Djorde Petrovic was excellent in the first half, saving from Amad and then Bruno Fernandes, while Adrien Truffert pulled off a brilliant block to deny the Ivorian on another occasion.
United eventually broke through on the hour, when some magic from Matheus Cunha lured Alex Jimenez into a shirt-pull of his own and Fernandes scored from the spot. The United captain has been billed as a player-of-the-season contender this week and kept his cool to send Petrovic the wrong way.
But Andoni Iraola's side are proving stubborn opposition right now and Christie produced an excellent finish into the bottom corner for a quick equaliser, following Truffert's controversial challenge on Amad.
United got their stroke of fortune when Hill headed into his own net to restore their advantage but Bournemouth continued to show plenty of threat of their own, with Scott smashing a stunning effort against the bar before Maguire's moment to forget swung the match once more.
This was the Cherries' fifth draw in a row and extends their unbeaten run to 11 in the top flight. They stay 10th.
Man Utd boss Michael Carrick to Your Site:
"We should have had another penalty. Obviously, if you get one, you must get the other.
"It's pretty much identical for me, two-hand grab. Either way, he's got one wrong, but to give one and not give the other, I can't get my head around it, I think it's crazy. It's a bit baffling, really.
"Because of that, they score and then it's chaos after that, really. We should have had another penalty and the game would have been totally different."
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola:
"I think it's a very entertaining game. We played well, we had good moments and good spells. It's a decent point when you face United, but probably at the end we were looking for the win.
"We had good moments, the crossbar from Alex Scott, the first chance from Rayan... You know against this kind of team you have to take those chances or things have to go your way."
On his future: "I'm really happy here. I have a great relationship with the club."
