Alvaro Arbeloa accuses officials of bias towards Manchester United

Fulham welcomed Manchester United to Craven Cottage in a featured match on Super Sunday of the Premier League.

The Cottagers had the lead for the majority of the second half of the outing after a disaster Lisandro Martinez own goal.

Late on, the Red Devils had a penalty shout turned away, but managed to strike home an equaliser through Matheus Cunha.

Neither manager appeared satisfied post-match, especially Fulham’s Alvaro Arbeloa, who narrowly missed out on winning for the first time at his new club courtesy of United’s late goal.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Arbeloa spoke angrily about the match officials for the match, saying, “All fouls for them. 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. I knew after the game against Man City that they [would not] let Manchester United lose here. We deserved a little bit more.

“We were so close. So, so close. We were a little bit unlucky again. We knew it would be difficult against this big team.

“Also we knew what happened last week. We have seen what the referees have been doing all the match so it was a difficult game. And we were unlucky.”

It’s a remarkable statement from Arbeloa – who suggests match officials were biased towards Manchester United because of their error in awarding a goal against them a week earlier during a derby match against Manchester City.

The former Real Madrid boss did appear to slightly backtrack on his claims after, admitting, “My English is not so good. Maybe I explain myself so bad and I prefer not to say anything about the referees because you never know.

“When you say something that you don’t have to say, it’s better to stay calm, focus on the performance of my team and focus on the next game.

“I’m not really happy. Like I said, I need to be focused and put my energy in all the things that I have to improve.”

Arbeloa’s claims about the referee could end up with him receiving a punishment. The move to slightly separate himself from the initial comments during the press conference could likely have been advised from Fulham officials, but the Spaniard will know what he meant.

With a three-week international break ahead and Fulham remaining winless and 19th in the Premier League table, the remarks likely emerge out of huge frustration for the 43-year-old who missed out on securing a statement victory.