Man City v Man United: Citizens get too many penalties, claims Sir Alex
Man City v Man United: Sir Alex Ferguson believes there would be a "protest" if Red Devils got as many penalties as their rivals
Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that there would be “protest” if Manchester United received the same number of penalties as Manchester City.
Roberto Mancini’s men have been awarded four spot-kicks in their last three home games and Ferguson, whose United side travel to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, feels the statistics would be more heavily scrutinised if his team were the beneficiaries.
“The number of penalty kicks they get – 21 in the last year or something like that. If we got that number of penalty kicks there’d be an inquiry in the House of Commons. There’d be a protest,” said Ferguson.
The Manchester United manager, whose side are three points clear of their fierce rivals at the top of the table, admits City are now the Red Devils’ “biggest threat” to their dominance of the Premier League.
“Liverpool and United games over the last 25 years have been unbelievable,” he added. “They’ve always been the most important games. It’s shifted because at this moment Liverpool aren’t challenging for the league like City are.
“City are our biggest threat and we’re their biggest threat, so that’s changed. Their fortunes changed the minute Sheikh Mansour took over. We know the minute that happened it was going to be a different ball game altogether.
“But, as we have in the past, we have to accept their challenge like we did when Chelsea came along and when Arsenal overtook Liverpool in the early 90s. We have to do it again.”
