Football: Ferguson rues controversial decision in Premiership clash

United held by Newcastle following contentious penalty.

MANCHESTER: Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson found it difficult to hold back his frustration after a controversial penalty decision against Newcastle meant they had to settle for a 1-1 draw in their Premier League clash.

United led through a lucky Javier Hernandez strike, but were then pegged back by a Demba Ba penalty.  Ferguson was quick to show his displeasure at the decision given by the assistant referee.

“It was an absolutely shocking decision,” said Ferguson after defender Rio Ferdinand was harshly penalised for a tackle on Hatem Ben Arfa. “It cost us the match.”

Ferdinand appeared to win the ball fairly from Ben Arfa but the assistant referee signalled a penalty. The referee then awarded a spot-kick after consulting with his assistant and Ba slotted the goal in.

“Everyone else, including the referee, was astounded,” lamented Ferguson. “He was put in a terrible position. That was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen.”

Chelsea thrash Wolves

Elsewhere, Chelsea crushed Wolverhampton 3-0 to give their embattled manager Andre Villas-Boas a respite after a string of poor results.

Villas-Boas revealed that a crisis meeting had taken place following Wednesday’s Champions League defeat at Bayer Leverkusen and his team responded emphatically.

“We’ve been wanting this performance for some time now,” he said. “It was an important win for us. We were focused in our tasks.”

John Terry headed in at the back post after seven minutes before Daniel Sturridge added a second and Juan Mata finished well just before the break.

Wenger not worried after draw

Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger insisted Arsenal must not make a crisis out of their frustrating 1-1 draw with Fulham.

“If you look at Fulham, they’re all international players in there,” he said. “Overall if you look back at where we came from we’ve had a long unbeaten run. Of course we’re disappointed, but I feel we’re improving.”

The Gunners fell behind to an own-goal from Thomas Vermaelen. Although he redeemed himself with a close-range header to equalise, Arsenal were unable to make their late pressure tell.

In other matches, Tottenham  won 3-1 against West Brom. Everton defeated Bolton 2-0, while Norwich beat Queens Park Rangers 2-1.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2011.