An acrimonious day in the Premier League. But also an action-packed and potentially far-reaching one. Manchester United gained a point on Manchester City but may lose more grand tomorrow and, if they do, they will feel even more aggrieved at referee Mike Jones.
With United 1-0 up at home to Newcastle thanks to Javier Hernandez’s fortuitous goal shortly after half-time, Jones then awarded Newcastle a controversial penalty before contentiously ruling out another Hernandez strike for offside just before the final whistle. But, although Alex Ferguson may have railed against the spot-kick which Demba Ba tucked away after an apparently clean Rio Ferdinand tackle on Hatem Ben Arfa, he should just as angrily look at his forwards. All of Ashley Young, Nani, Fabio, substitute Federico Macheda and Hernandez himself wasted a series of chances that should have made both moments irrelevant. Newcastle – and particularly goalkeeper Tim Krul and Danny Simpson – do deserve much credit, however, for a superbly well-marshalled defensive performance which even accounted for Jonas Gutierrez getting sent off.
At the Emirates, the visit of Fulham can be summed up in seven words: Robin van Persie didn’t score; Arsenal didn’t win. And it took a late Thomas Vermaelen header to make up for his earlier own goal.
By contrast, Tottenham kept up their recently ruthless run despite the absence of Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart. Spurs overcame Youssef Mulumbu’s early goal thanks to inspired performances from Scott Parker and Emmanuel Adebayor. The striker scored twice while also setting up Jermain Defoe with a superb backheeled pass.
At Stamford Bridge, Juan Mata was arguably even more influential. The Spaniard set up goals for John Terry and Daniel Sturridge before hitting a fine volley himself in an easy 3-0 win over Wolves.
At the bottom of the table, there was a huge last-minute 2-1 win for Wigan away to Sunderland. Roberto Martinez’s side also came from behind Seb Larsson’s opener with Yordi Gomez scoring a penalty before Franco Di Santo hit a 93rd-minute winner. The result lifted Wigan off the bottom due to Blackburn’s 3-1 defeat to Stoke. Rory Delap, Glenn Whelan and Peter Crouch ended a four-game losing run for Tony Pulis’s side before Rochina pulled one back for Rovers.
Elsewhere, Norwich beat QPR 2-1 and Everton won 2-0 away to Bolton.
