It will be a lot harder to win the title back from Manchester United this season.
The game at Old Trafford against Liverpool today proved to the footballing world that in order to beat Manchester United you need to play well against 14 men - the United players and the three referees.
Howard Webb who is supposed to be England’s best referee killed the game as a spectacle after giving a penalty inside FORTY SECONDS for a blatant dive by Berbatov.
Berbatov dives in the box , the United crowd demands a penalty and Webb duly obliges to kill the game for the neutrals like us. Just exactly how many penalties does United earn at Old Trafford every season?
Not happy with allocating a customary United penalty, Webb then goes on to send off Gerrard inside thirty minutes. I am aware it was a bad challenge but how many times have you seen Fletcher get away with these kinds of challenges? A yellow card would have sufficed but Webb did not want to allow Liverpool a way back in this game.
You just do not go into the game there thinking that it will be a level playing field. You cannot say the same thing when playing Chelsea - whenever we have been beaten there, it has been fair and square.
This is the problem with Manchester United at the Theatre of Cheats.
They cheat, they dive and they foul. They end up getting the penalty awards and you end up playing with 10 men. Remember the disgraceful way Riley ended up our unbeaten run in 2004? As for this season, Clichy was penalised for what was an obvious dive but Howard Webb again gave a penalty award to kill the game off. Unfortunately, Rooney fluffed his chance and the score remained 1-0.
As for last season, do you remember van Persie equalising in the last minute at Old Trafford but the linesman refusing the goal for inconclusive offside? That game also included a little penalty award by Mike Dean of course in order to allow United to equalise (as we were leading).
Remember the battering of Reyes by Neville but with no red card being brandished ? Remember Sagna getting his shirt ripped by Rio Ferdinand’s karate kick in our game earlier this season? Remember Van Nistelrooy getting Vieira sent off in our game a few years back?
And that is only in the big games. God knows what happens when smaller sides play there in non-televised games. I reckon that every year Man United takes 10-15 points extra at Old Trafford due to dodgy referring but of course this never gets highlighted by Murdoch’s media. Murdoch is a big United fan who wanted to buy the club a few years back.
It will be hard to wrestle the title from United as dodgy referring could well be play a big part in the title race this season. Whatever happens, they are champions that I have never respected as they are for me the biggest cheats in English football.
CHECK:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1173959/The-10-dodgiest-penalties-awarded-Old-Trafford--surprise-surprise-went-Manchester-Uniteds-way.html
