Alvaro Arbeloa has accused officials of favouring Manchester United during their 1-1 draw with Fulham, claiming they did not want Michael Carrick’s side to lose after controversy in last weekend’s Manchester derby.
Fulham appeared set to secure victory until Matheus Cunha’s deflected equaliser in the 89th minute. But Arbeloa was angered by a free-kick awarded to United 35 seconds before the goal for Cesar Palacios’ challenge on Harry Maguire near the halfway line.
The Fulham head coach felt the decision was soft and said referee Michael Oliver and his team had consistently awarded fouls to United. He linked that perceived imbalance to the officials’ “error in judgement” when Erling Haaland’s Manchester derby winner was incorrectly awarded at Old Trafford the previous weekend.
“All fouls for them,” Arbeloa said. “You can see before they scored, the foul against Maguire, he’s a guy who is 100 kilos. Every decision was for them.”
He added: “And I knew. I knew after the game against Man City that they [would not] let Manchester United lose here. We deserved a little bit more.”
Arbeloa said Fulham had been close to securing the result despite expecting a difficult match against United.
“We were so close. So, so close. We were a little bit unlucky again,” he said. “We knew it would be difficult against this big team.”
He also referred to the previous weekend’s events and the wider standard of officiating, saying: “Also we knew what happened last week. We have seen what the referees have been doing in all the matches so it was a difficult game. And we were unlucky.”
