Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has voiced his discontent over the decision to make Graham Poll the match referee, following his side's clash with Arsenal at Highbury yesterday.
Poll has not been back to Arsenal since December 2001 when he controversially awarded Newcastle a penalty in the their 3-1 win and also sent off Ray Parlour, much to Arsene Wenger's annoyance.
Ferguson claimed that undue pressure was put on Poll not to upset the Gunners and contributed to the referee failing to give what he felt was a clear-cut United penalty. Sol Campbell brought down Ryan Giggs in the area shortly after Thierry Henry had put the hosts in front.
"The last time Graham Poll refereed here Arsenal complained to the FA about his performance," said Ferguson. "That was well over two years ago and he has not been back since. It's almost like they are deciding who the referee is going to be and that is very disappointing. It is an immense pressure for any referee to be under because if he has another bad game, he doesn't get back again. It's ridiculous."
The importance put upon the refereeing decisions really underlined what a competitively fought game this was. Some had expected Arsenal to roll Manchester United over with relative ease on the strength of their respective form but it was an extremely tight contest. After the match Ferguson couldn't hide a smile when he said "We played well. And I think we showed a few people we're not dead yet."
However, it was not enough for United who realistically needed to win to keep any chance of retaining their Premiership title alive. After the match Ferguson conceded the title with his side still twelve points behind Arsenal with eight games to go: "Arsenal will go on to win the league now, I am sure of that," he said.
Wenger was not quite as forthright but came very close to admitting the championship was now between just two sides: "You always respect Manchester United but they are 12 points behind us and five behind Chelsea," he said. "While one of us might drop points, it's difficult to see two teams doing it at this stage of the season."
Henry had put Arsenal in front on 50 minutes with a swerving 30-yard strike before Louis Saha levelled the game five minutes from time. Wenger described Henry's goal as a missile whilst Ferguson admitted that he had initially felt his keeper could have been to blame - until he saw the replay.
"The lighter balls these days encourage you to shoot and it was a marvellous strike," he said. "I thought we came back well though and once we got the equaliser I thought we were more likely to win it."
The match sets up another huge game between the Premiership heavyweights when the pair meet this Saturday at Villa Park in the FA Cup semi final. United will be cheered by yesterday's performance and look forward to going to a ground where they beat Arsenal 2-1 in the same competition in 1999, courtesy of Ryan Giggs's wonder-goal.
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