No, the ones against Stoke and Chelsea. Where a large portion of fans appeared to ignore the fact that all pens were deserved, with clear and obvious contact, and that we could have had more pens or cards for fouls in the same games, resorting instead to yelling "Four pens in two games! Fix! Fix!"
Welbeck's second penalty was an injustice to Chelsea. The other penalties were fine, but with Welbecks penalty Ivanovic had pulled back his leg to avoid the tackle, prompting Welbeck to move his leg out to intiate contact. Welbeck should have been booked for simulation. That is what happened there is no denying that, but there's no point crying over it. Every team gets dubious penalties there's nothing new.
Don't recall the well back one that well, but a lot of players have got good at moving into an opponents leg and then going down. Really ****s me of when anyone does it makes it really difficult on the reff to call.
Suppose you could take that point of view, personally I thought Ivanovic failed to pull his leg back in time and impeded Welbeck. But then you could probably make the same argument either way about any penalty where the striker could have avoided the contact but chose not to. And of course, as AVB himself admitted, that penalty was simply 'compensation' for the ref failing to send off Cahill for bringing Welbeck down when clean through in the first half, when Cahill admitted he went through the back of the player, and not giving us a clearer penalty when Bosingwa pulled back Young. Like you say, the bad decisions go both ways. But as the OP says, when they go Utd's way everyone remembers them, when they don't no one cares! Heck, there are still people who argue our first penalty in that game was wrong, despite AVB admitting it was an obvious penalty!
This is true. But then the same could be said for any club competing at the top versus any in the lower half / relegation zone. You could replace Utd with Chelsea, Arsenal or City and Wigan with QPR, Villa or Stoke and the statement would be equally true. The myth about Utd getting them all is simply a result of us competing at the top for the longest.
Agree. we do very well out of refs... in England at least. Under Jose we got as many decisions as SAF. If jose had stayed even a few more years, he would have been as influential on refs as SAF. Refs obviously don't like AW; how you can be a Prem manager for 15 years and not influence refs is beyond me. It is part of the manager's job to pressure the ref. It is his job to get results and if that means pressurising refs at Old trafford, so be it. SAF is very good at it
Also by the quality of the team. No surprises that Chelsea got more decisions under Mourinho, when they were at their best ever, than under any other manager during the period after Jose left. Probably explains why Arsenal have gotten much fewer decisions in recent years
That's a fair assessment. I do wonder how much the media and fan pressure on Webb affected his decisions in a game like that. In the first half, when Utd were all over Chelsea, did he refuse to send off Cahill and turn down the penalty for Young cos he didn't want people to think he was biased, and figured it wouldn't affect the result anyway? Then in the second half when Welbeck went down, did he realise that the two bad decisions in the first half were now very likely to affect the result and so tried to balance it out? I'd like to think refs could rise above that, but even a ref who's officiated for years and done a WC final must be affected by the constant media pressure and fans questioning his integrity every week.
As a Chelsea fan, all the decisions United get in their favour don't bother me, because we get so much help from refs ourselves. But if I was an Arsenal fans, or heaven forbid a Dipper, all the favouritism United get would drive me nuts
Is this still going on? The fundamental difference between Chelsea and United fans is we accept that we get a lions share of refereeing decisions going our way, United fans choose to distance themselves from it and point to individual incidents that have gone against them refusing to acknowledge the bigger picture. The fact is Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and United (Sky 4) All benefit from ref favouritism. United Moreso than the other 3 but it's still quite bad. I hate the fact that JT, Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Ferdinand and co are referred to by their first names. Seems too pally to me
Most United fans only point out the decisions that go against us in response to the constant conspiracy theories, most of us will happily admit that United, like most of the big clubs around the world, often get the rub of the green, especially at home. The problem is a lot of rival fans choose to completely disregard any decisions that go against United while focusing on the ones that go for them with the usual shouts of FA and ref favoritism, even when the decisions are clearly correct.
This. Even tho' Chelsea have been on a par with Utd for getting the decisions for about the last eight years now, you still constantly hear about "Fergie Time" and the "Ferguson Association" and all the other bollox. And as London's Only points out, the decisions that favour Utd are the only ones the Gooners and Scousers and others continually whine about, not the ones that favour Chelsea, or more recently City.
It is unlikely that any team will enjoy as much favouritism as United ever again as no one will manage such a big club as United for so long again. SAF has been around so long he can groom the next Webb etc as a ref.
Mainly cos it's unlikely that any team will enjoy as sustained a period of success as Utd ever again. Finishing in the top three for 21 years in a row just won't be done again - even with Roman's billions behind them Chelsea could only manage eight in a row. Heck, it's the main reason Arsenal and Liverpool fans are now so bitter - when they were finishing top three or four every season they were getting the decisions as well, but as their quality falls so do the number of decisions they get. Interesting that the bleating about decisions from City has also stopped now they have hit the top and get the rub of the green all the time as well.
