Fergie fuming as ‘unfair’ Riley books seven United players
Five months after the infamous ‘Battle of the Bridge’, when United defender Patrice Evra was involved in a bout of fisticuffs with a member of the Londoners’ groundstaff, there was more controversy yesterday as Riley booked seven visiting players — including three for dissent — compared to just one from Chelsea.
“It wasn’t a dirty game,” Ji-Sung Park, the United goalscorer, said.
“I think having seven players booked is a little unfair and some Chelsea tackles which looked similar to ours seemed to go unpunished. But that’s the referee’s decision.”
United manager Alex Ferguson preferred to keep his thoughts on Riley’s performance to himself, although his verdict could be gauged in his response to an enquiry from a reporter about his reaction to his assistant Mike Phelan bursting a balloon behind his back.
“I wish he’d burst it under Mike Riley,” he suggested. “It might have woken him up.”
The depth of United’s feelings were apparent at the final whistle, when Ferguson had to walk on to the pitch to pull his players away from the match officials. Rio Ferdinand was particularly upset, the defender appearing to mouth a stream of obscenities as he stormed down the tunnel, while Ferguson kept up a lively dialogue with the fourth official Rob Styles throughout the game.
The bad blood also spilled over after the game when United’s team coach was pelted with bottles and bricks by a Chelsea fan as it left Stamford Bridge. A window of the bus was cracked and the fan arrested.
Luiz Felipe Scolari insisted Riley’s flurry of cards was justified. “I was not surprised,” he said. “If players do not respect the ref, it should be yellow and red cards.”
Scolari was content with extending his unbeaten run this season to six games, but for Ferguson this represented a missed opportunity. “We started the game very, very well,” he said. “I thought we dominated it and we should have been going for the jugular when it was 1-0. I think we started to drop off the pace a bit.”
Ferguson’s mood was not helped by an injury to goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, who was forced off after jarring his knee in a collision with Florent Malouda, although he is expected to be fit for next week’s meeting with Boro.
Chelsea, meanwhile, saw Deco sustain a muscle injury in the pre-match warm-up — he was replaced by Michael Ballack — while Ricardo Carvalho injured his knee in the 11th minute. Both players will be assessed by Chelsea’s medical staff at their Cobham training base today.
Scolari will bolster his options with the free transfer signing of Mineiro, the Brazilian midfielder who was released by Hertha Berlin at the end of last season.
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