Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has accused Roy Keane of telling a “lie” regarding the Premier League assists record. The Portuguese midfielder took his season’s assists to 21 after a comprehensive 3-0 win against Brighton on Sunday, which is now a Premier League record in a season.

Earlier, Fernandes had matched the assist record, which was shared by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne, when United claimed a 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest.

Speaking on The Overlap podcast, Keane said: “After the [Forest] game he got interviewed and he said, the captain of Manchester United said: ‘A few times, I probably should have shot but I made them passes.’

“Wow. How can your mindset of a footballer be going into a match to be about an individual record? He won’t be winning trophies, not with that mindset of the team.”

However, the former Manchester United captain had misinterpreted Fernandes’ words.

Fernandes’ actual post-match remarks were: “There were probably moments today when I should have passed instead of shot.

“I’m very happy for the assist, but more than that, I’m happy for the win and to finish the season on a high.”

Fernandes said Keane had put untrue “words in my mouth.”

“Like I’ve always said, I don’t mind criticism,” Fernandes told The Diary of a CEO podcast. “I’ve always taken criticism from everyone and anyone and I never reply to anything or whatsoever.

“People have an opinion; they think it’s good, bad, whatever. What I don’t like is when people lie about things and [in] this case that you said about Roy Keane basically what he said is a lie because either he saw some other interview or he can’t say that I said one thing that I’ve just not said, and luckily for me, everything is on record.

“I accept his criticism, I accept that he might like me as a player or not, like me as a person or not. But what I don’t like is that he puts words in my mouth that have not been said.”

United ended the Premier League in third place with 71 points after 38 matches.