Quote Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda View Post
Absolutely, although I think it is a big step to suggest corruption and I generally haven't heard anything from "those in the know" to remotely suggest it either. There are several factors at play -

The kicking: Riley was certainly known to have a United bent shall we say, whether it was conscious or unconscious, and I have no doubt that Ferguson would have used that to see how much his team could get away with. Added to the fact that refs were under pressure to allow thugs to get away with murder, I mean let the game flow and not get card happy and once again United played to the ref (and to be fair Cole and Edu produced two horrendous tackles on Ronaldo), I don't think there is as much mystery there as some make out two very physical teams playing at a tempo that no one else in the league would match. In fact you could make a case for some of our treatment of Ronaldo down the years - a New Year's Day game at Highbury when Cygan put him into row A (he was aiming for Z) several times comes to mind - was just as shameful and unpunished as the assault on Reyes, yet Ronaldo went on to become the best player in the world and didn't wuss off back to Iberia in a sulk.

The penalty: Obviously no argument that it was a dive but it goes in the same category as "seen 'em given". At full pelt it looked a penalty and it's called conning a ref for a reason (of course, they do say you can't con a honest man)

Foul on Freddie: One hundred per cent bottle job, knew it was a red card if he gave a free kick so gave nothing. Homer ref but again not unusual at OT

Assault on Cole: This for me was the worst one - pure thuggery right under the lineman's nose and nothing given. Really no excuse, or possible reason for that

VERDICT: Mike Riley is a corrupt **** - but Mike Dean is worse
Agree with most of that. The penalty would have been given whoever had been refereeing that game. Same goes for the foul on Freddie- I dont think any ref would have given that and sent Rio off.

Assault on Cole, the linesman sees this clearly, says nothing, and Riley does not show any interest in even looking at him. That is beyond weird.

The two challenges by Neville on Reyes are outrageous. The fact that he doesnt book him for the first one is just beyond ridiculous. Even Andy Grey couldnt believe his eyes andwas still going on about it after the game.

Our players clearly had the previous year in the back of their minds because they were really calm about the whole thing. Normally they would have been screaming at the ref. I am sure Wenger told them to just put up with whatever happened and keep calm.