Alvaro Arbeloa accuses officials of favouring Manchester United after Fulham’s 1-1 draw | OneFootball

Alvaro Arbeloa accused the officials of favouring Manchester United after Fulham were denied victory in a 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage on Sunday.

The Cottagers led until the 89th minute, when Matheus Cunha's deflected strike levelled it. Referee Peter Bankes had awarded United a 'soft' free-kick on halfway 35 seconds earlier after Cesar Palacios challenged Harry Maguire.

"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. And I knew. After the game against Man City that they [would not] let Manchester United lose here. We were so close. We were a little bit unlucky again," he told Sky Sports.

Later, at his press conference, the Fulham head coach softened his stance, saying his English might not be good and that he preferred not to discuss referees. He said he would focus on improving his team and accepted the Maguire incident might not have been a foul.

"It's definitely a foul. Palacios isn't looking at the ball, he's straight into Maguire's back. I know he [Arbeloa] says Maguire is 100kg, but he's smart, he's waiting for the foul to be committed."

"It might be soft, but that's where some players have experience, they use their body in the right way. In his position, he felt like he couldn't take the control so it was a clever piece of work from Maguire."

Source: Goal.com

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”