ooooh, well done Arsene

[IUFG]

I remember the Fabianski one. At every set piece he was blatantly fouled and the ref ignored every single one. In an age where 'keepers get far too much porotection'........

Chris Samba may have headed in the winner from a corner. He may well also have flattened Fabianski on a number of other occasions

[Burney]

There are two fouls on Reyes where Vieira is far too nice about it. Both challenges should have resulted in outright brawls.

Ok, any arsenal player talking out of turn would have been booked and any scuffle would have resulted in red cards but that would have been preferable to what actually happened. It would have made it Even clearer that Riley was not refereeing the game at all.

I'd have preferred that. It would at least have focused attention on the fouls and the non-refereeing in the aftermath. As it was, everyone just glossed over it in favour of the 'Arsenal unbeaten run ended by United' story.

[Sir C]

There are two fouls on Reyes where Vieira is far too nice about it. Both challenges should have resulted in outright brawls.

Ok, any arsenal player talking out of turn would have been booked and any scuffle would have resulted in red cards but that would have been preferable to what actually happened. It would have made it Even clearer that Riley was not refereeing the game at all.

I still don't understand why Vieira didn't hospitalise Gary Neville with a waist-high challenge during that game. We did rather roll over and take it, I'm afraid, despite the fact that that doesn't fit the accepted narrative of early Wenger teams were warriors / later Wenger teams all gaylords.

[World's End Stella]

There are two fouls on Reyes where Vieira is far too nice about it. Both challenges should have resulted in outright brawls.

Ok, any arsenal player talking out of turn would have been booked and any scuffle would have resulted in red cards but that would have been preferable to what actually happened. It would have made it Even clearer that Riley was not refereeing the game at all.

Of all the things that happened in that game it was the refusal to book that rat faced little weasel until about his 8th foul on Reyes that wound me up most. The other three were all one off incidents that a referee could miss (especially when he's a cheat).

But the deliberate targeting of Reyes was nasty and obvious and he let it go time and time again and then gave Cole a yellow for our first deliberate foul! At that point I seem to recall utterly losing it at a television, in a hotel, on holiday, with people around.

[PSRB]

Chris Samba may have headed in the winner from a corner. He may well also have flattened Fabianski on a number of other occasions

Chris Samba Jeez, I remember everyone clamouring for us to sign him

[Burney]

I still don't understand why Vieira didn't hospitalise Gary Neville with a waist-high challenge during that game. We did rather roll over and take it, I'm afraid, despite the fact that that doesn't fit the accepted narrative of early Wenger teams were warriors / later Wenger teams all gaylords.

That's the thing about Vieira, though. For a man with a simply woeful disciplinary record, he never properly fücked anyone up. He was usually booked for soft fouls and reacting to blatant provocation rather than outright violence.

[Peter]

I still don't understand why Vieira didn't hospitalise Gary Neville with a waist-high challenge during that game. We did rather roll over and take it, I'm afraid, despite the fact that that doesn't fit the accepted narrative of early Wenger teams were warriors / later Wenger teams all gaylords.

I assume its a reaction to what happened there the previous season. We got all the blame for the battle of old trafford and the club must have told the players to watch their behaviour. The Football reaction is to stick in plenty of fouls of your own but given Riley this wasnt possible. Every foul would have been a booking, anything resembling the challenges Neville was putting in would have been straight reds.

The same with any reaction or animated complaint to the ref.

[Sir C]

That's the thing about Vieira, though. For a man with a simply woeful disciplinary record, he never properly fücked anyone up. He was usually booked for soft fouls and reacting to blatant provocation rather than outright violence.

There were things about the chap which are still hard to acknowledge. Like the Roy Keane tunnel incident when Vieira shÃ*t himself and wanted nothing moe to do with the Cork tinker.

[Peter]

Of all the things that happened in that game it was the refusal to book that rat faced little weasel until about his 8th foul on Reyes that wound me up most. The other three were all one off incidents that a referee could miss (especially when he's a cheat).

But the deliberate targeting of Reyes was nasty and obvious and he let it go time and time again and then gave Cole a yellow for our first deliberate foul! At that point I seem to recall utterly losing it at a television, in a hotel, on holiday, with people around.

Even Andy Gray, one of United and Neville's biggest admirers at one point says he would love to know why those tackles werent bookings. One in particular is terrible. The one he gets booked for is an absolute ****ing disgrace.

He didnt 'miss' Rio's foul on Freddie. He ignored it because he would have had to send him off. You simply couldn't send off a United player at Old TRafford in those days, or award a penalty. It was just unthinkable.

[Burney]

I assume its a reaction to what happened there the previous season. We got all the blame for the battle of old trafford and the club must have told the players to watch their behaviour. The Football reaction is to stick in plenty of fouls of your own but given Riley this wasnt possible. Every foul would have been a booking, anything resembling the challenges Neville was putting in would have been straight reds.

The same with any reaction or animated complaint to the ref.

The thing people forget about the Keown nonsense at Old Trafford was that the only person there who looked willing and capable to dish out extreme violence was Lauren. He looked absolutely prepared to dismember Phil Neville when he grabbed him by the throat.