Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas refused to give a direct comment on Manchester United’s penalty debate that overshadowed their performance against the league leaders.
Sir Alex Ferguson has blasted the assistant referee for not awarding United a penalty after Wayne Rooney was fouled in the Spurs box but AVB reacted in a positive way and talked more about his team than about the penalty saga.
He said,
“Clint Dempsey’s injury time equalizer gave us the very least we deserved from the match – any sensible football would agree with that.”
“Obviously it is going to be debated and debated and I hope it doesn’t mar the game,”
“During the game we got most of the decisions against us. I prefer to look at this game on my view and United prefer to look at it on their view.”
“We take our boost of confidence and the debate is going to be whether it was a penalty because that is controversy and it sells better, but we shouldn’t mar the game and the quality of the game played in these difficult conditions.”
“Fortunately we got a point, I think it is credit for the game that we had. We were the best team and created the best chances.”
“I think it was probably the worst United game in terms of opportunities, with them having only four. It is a pity we couldn’t win but I’m extremely happy with the draw obviously.”
Tottenham’s scorer Clint Dempsey felt the same way as his manager and commented that their side did enough to deserve their 1-1 draw at home to Manchester United.
The visitors appeared to have sealed the game with a early Van Persie header, before Dempsey leveled terms in three minutes into injury time.
He said,
“It is always good to get four points against United in a season. It’s nice to get the point tonight when we were looking at a defeat, but their goalkeeper made some great saves in the first half.”
“We take a lot of confidence from this point because we had a lot of possession, a good number of chances that we created and shots on goal. It keeps us on a good run of form with three tough games coming up. We have three away fixtures and it’s about getting the right results in those matches.”
Spurs’ impressive form against Manchester United continued as they took 4 points out of possible 6. They won 3-2 at Old Trafford in September 2012. Dempsey scored the winning goal on that game at old Trafford.
Tottenham are fourth in the league, while United stay at the top.