Man Utd’s Lisandro Martinez accused of elbowing Leon Bailey TWICE in ribs as Aston Villa ace says he ‘couldn’t breathe’

LEON BAILEY has accused Lisandro Martinez of elbowing him TWICE in the ribs and blasted the referee for failing to take action.

The Aston Villa star, 25, scored the opening goal to help his team romp to a 3-1 victory over Manchester United on Sunday.

However, as tensions threatened to boil over in the Premier League clash, the Jamaican international “couldn’t breath” after a nasty incident with the Red Devils defender.

Bailey was rolling around on the turf holding his stomach on the hour mark after being caught by the tough-tackling Argentine’s elbow two times in quick succession.

The 24-year-old Martinez escaped punishment both times which left fans fuming on social media.

And Bailey was just as annoyed afterwards as he also took to Twitter to slam the officiating.

The former Bayer Leverkusen winger wrote: “Very disappointed in the referees today, I couldn’t breath for a second after getting elbowed twice in my rib.

“The linesman went on to say I shouldn’t be saying anything because I was doing just the same thing to Martinez.

“Sometimes I don’t understand why we got VAR. SMH.”

Supporters were just as equally baffled by the decision not to punish Martinez, who had pleaded his innocence after the collision on the pitch.

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One fan tweeted: “That’s a red card all day on Martinez. The challenge and follow up elbow on Leon Bailey was malicious and dirty.”

Another commented: “How is VAR not looking at Martinez basically punching Leon Bailey in the stomach there? Shambles.”

While a fellow Villa follower said: “Great result but truly appalling refereeing today. Leon Bailey was literally elbowed in the stomach by United’s Martinez and nothing!”

And another posted: “Wild how we all just watched Lisandro Martinez elbow Leon Bailey in the midriff three times.”