The Stoke penalty, could go either way really. Probably a fair point, I didn't see it.
It was a clear penalty, and should have been a sending off as Woodgate came straight through the back of Hernandez, and also injured him. I know photos aren't the best way to judge these things, but it's pretty clear here:
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The free kick was won by Suarez after being fouled by Ferdinand, which Gerrard then scored. There was no questionable decision and you were lucky to get an equaliser in that game. I would argue that the loss against Man City was entirely down to being outplayed.
The free kick was won by Adam, and the contact was as minimal as the Young one today. Both players could've stayed on their feet, both chose to go down. Young just did it with a bit more style
As for being lucky to get an equaliser, luck had nothing to do with it. We created the chance, we scored the chance, end of. We were outplayed against City, but that was largely due to Evans being sent off, and whether that was due to the psychological damage of being on the end of a contentious decision against Liverpool, we'll never know...
The non-penalty for Newcastle, I'll give you that one. But I doubt it's going to have much of an effect on a game in a competition that your manager openly admits on a regular basis means nothing to him. The Champion's League loss is fair enough and could very well have been affected.
Probably didn't have much effect on the LC, but again who knows? After all, we are basically just guessing here. It's odd how you are so strongly against UIR arguing that the decisions didn't change the result in the games against QPR and Villa, but so convinced that they must have affected other games.
Although I still believe getting 2 wrong decisions your way in a single game to bring you level from 3-0 down, it's pretty drastic and makes me wonder why Howard Webb is still allowed to referee your games.
Mainly cos one of the decisions was spot on (AVB basically admitted Sturridge fouled Evra) and the other was contentious. And given that Webb could well have sent Cahill off in the first half (have still seen no replays of that incident that show Cahill making any contact with the ball), I think those two decisions pretty much even themselves out.
I think the Newcastle penalty was put down to bad luck and put to bed with an away win at Aston Villa before you even got to your Champion's League game.
You think this and yet you are sure that the positive psychological effects of the other decisions have lingered so long as to influence the season? Again, it's all just guesswork.
Had there been a loss shortly after your game against Chelsea, I doubt the effect would have lasted so long. It's the butterfly effect at work. I don't think any one can argue that this seems to go in your favour quite often.
Actually there have been plenty of contentious decisions that have gone against us this season. They just aren't noticed because we still get a result from the game.
Hernandez pen vs Stoke
Rio non pen vs Newcastle
Adam free kick vs Liverpool
Cahill non red card vs Chelsea
Welbeck penalty should've been given vs Fulham away (we won 5-0)
Dempsey elbow on Jones not punished vs Fulham (same game)
Penalty should've been given at home vs Stoke (we won 2-0)
Ashley Cole not sent off for a stud lunge on Hernandez home to Chelsea (we won 3-1)
Welbeck goal wrongly disallowed for offside away at QPR (we won 2-0)
The only reason this 'butterfly effect' you talk about seems to go in our favour so often is that we make it work in our favour. And when it goes against us, we don't let it affect us. That's why we're top of the league
Not really, every time there's a decision genuinely go against you that changes a game, no matter how crap you were Ferguson always has to have a paddy in the media about it. Then the next week when he's gifted points on a plate with questionable decisions he's back to his "well that's the way it goes sometimes" routine, faking humility.
As for the Wigan game, the only recent argument you can come up with in the same game as a decision went your way. The numbers just don't add up.
See the examples above. The simple fact is that we are the best team in England at the moment based on our results. And the best team in England tends to win more matches than all the others, regardless of decisions. So when the decisions go against us, they are far less likely to actually matter, and hence the media and opposition fans are far less likely to actually care.
