Hannibal Mejbri defends himself after his celebrations during Man Utd 1-3 Brighton | OneFootball

Highlights

Hannibal Mejbri has defended his celebration during Manchester United's 3-1 defeat to Brighton. The 20-year-old came off the bench to score his first ever goal for the club in just his fourth appearance at Old Trafford. However, it proved to be merely a consolation with United already 3-0 down at the time.

Former United striker, Danny Welbeck, had given Brighton the lead in the first half with a lovely swept finish from inside the penalty area. The home side thought they had levelled it when Rasmus Højlund appeared to score his first goal for the club from Marcus Rashford's pullback. However, VAR adjudged the ball to have been out of play when Rashford crossed it. It was a let off for Brighton but they learned from their warning.

Pascal Gross scored his fourth goal at Old Trafford just eight minutes into the second half when he smashed the ball past Andre Onana to make it 2-0. Erik ten Hag rung the changes with Hannibal and Anthony Martial coming on for Casemiro and Højlund respectively. But it didn't have the desired impact as Joao Pedro made it 3-0 shortly afterwards. Two minutes later, United did manage to pull a goal back when Hannibal picked up the ball from Lisandro Martinez and found the bottom corner. There wasn't too much celebration from the fans inside Old Trafford but the player himself seemed absolutely delighted to have scored. Despite the 3-1 scoreline, he waved his arms around wildly and looked absolutely delighted.

Hannibal Mejbri defends his celebration

It was a celebration that many fans, perhaps harshly, questioned given the circumstances of the match. But now, the player himself has come out and defended himself. After obviously hearing the controversy surrounding his celebrations, the player took to social media to write: "Years of work went into that moment to score a goal for this incredible club. Impossible to enjoy it without the team getting the result we wanted."

Fairplay. You can't argue with that. It was a moment that he won't forget for his entire career. He won't remember the result of the match but he will remember when he scored his first goal for Manchester United.

Man Utd have now lost three game in their previous four against Tottenham, Arsenal and Brighton. And Ten Hag admitted that he's 'worried' about their current form.

Ten Hag is 'bothered' by Man Utd's form

“Definitely, that is something that bothers me [results]," Ten Hag admitted. "But also I have to see the way we play. But, finally, it’s about character and now we have to see how strong we are, and how the team sticks together, and which players are standing up, show the character and lead the team because in all the games, all the games but, especially, the games against [Brighton] today, Arsenal, [Nottingham] Forest, we have seen we can play very good and we can create a lot of chances. But there are also some improvements to make, that is definitely the case, and we have to step up.”