Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson insists lucky breaks even themselves out over the course of a season.
United chief denies favourable treatment for his side
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson insists lucky breaks even themselves out over the course of a season.
Manchester City's football development executive Patrick Vieira suggested that United, along with most major clubs in Spain and Italy, benefited from favourable decisions on home soil - although the Frenchman later claimed his comments were taken out of context.
The argument has been reignited following referee Michael Oliver's failure to award Fulham a last-minute penalty at Old Trafford on Monday for Michael Carrick's clumsy challenge on Danny Murphy.
Ferguson accepts the Red Devils were lucky with that one as they went on to win 1-0 and open up a three-point lead over City at the top of the table.
However, he can cite plenty of other instances where his team were wronged and feels the decisions even themselves out over the campaign.
"From the referee's position, I can see why he didn't give a penalty when Danny Murphy was brought down," said Ferguson.
"The ball moved to the angle as Michael Carrick challenged him. From that position, it wasn't clear.
"It was a good claim but City could have had a penalty against them at Stoke for a foul by Gareth Barry.
Breaks
"Every club gets breaks here and there, you get good ones and bad ones.
"It evens itself out over the season, that will never change."
Ferguson used United's home game against Newcastle in November as an example of a major decision affecting his team, when Rio Ferdinand conceded a penalty for a perfectly fair challenge on Hatem Ben Arfa.
He also has not forgotten how Mario Balotelli escaped a red card for stamping on Scott Parker during Manchester City's win over Tottenham at the Etihad Stadium in January, then scored the match-winning penalty in injury-time.
"We had a terrible decision earlier this season when Newcastle got a penalty and Tottenham could claim the same when Mario Balotelli wasn't sent off and ended up scoring the winning goal," added Ferguson.
"You could go through millions of things like that.
"Maybe smaller clubs feel that (decisions go against them when they play big clubs) but someone said some years ago that we get lots of penalties. It is only averaging out at three a year.
"You can't say that is a lot when you are attacking teams all the time.
"Most managers believe the breaks even themselves out."
