Both Manchester Premiership Teams Win, But City's Balotelli A Disgrace to Football

Both of Manchester's Premiership clubs won on Sunday, but one left a bitter taste to many football fans.

Manchester United overcame Arsenal at the Emirates winning by 2-1.

Antonio Valencia scored first for United just before half-time with a great header from Giggs' well targeted pass. Arsenal then drew level after Robin van Persie's shot went in with about 20 minutes of the game left.

Danny Welbeck worked hard and got himself into a good position and benefited from Valencia's work on the edge of the box to score United's winning goal. Substitute Rafael was himself substituted just a few minutes earlier, but he wasn't too pleased at Fergie's decision.

As for Manchester City, Harry Redknapp, Spurs manager, had a grievance about Balotelli who clearly stamped on the head of Scott Parker with a back heel when Parker was on the floor after a collision. How Balotelli got away with not being red-carded I have no idea. Hopefully the FA will do the right thing and review the event, and Balotelli should receive a four-match ban, should the FA intervene. Violent conduct has no place in football, and Balotelli and the City management should be ashamed of what happened. Sadly this is one player picking up a reputation for very different reasons.

Had the player been sent off the game would have been so different. It was Balotelli who was later fouled in the penalty area, and it was he who scored the resulting penalty. City won the match 3-2.

And to make matters worse, there is a question over whether an elbow by Joleon Lescott in the face of  Younes Kabou was accidental or deliberate. It looked deliberate to me, as well as the MOTD2 pundits, so there could and perhaps should have been only nine City players on the field at the end, with a very different scoreline likely.

Manchester United Fortunate in Derby Match

All was going so well in yesterday's match between Manchester City and Manchester United. It even looked like United might take sweet revenge with a similar scoreline when City beat them 1-6 in the Premiership a few months ago.

At half time United were 3 goals to nil up. City contentiously  had a player (Vincent Kompany) sent off early in the first half just a couple of minutes after Wayne Rooney got the first goal for the Red Devils. What went wrong during the half time break I have no idea, but United seemed to get complacent, and City came out in the second half all guns blazing. Having said that United could and should have had a second penalty, but the ref wasn't interested.

Should Paul Scholes  have been sent on with still around 30 minutes of the match to go? Well, debatable, but his mistake did cost United a goal for the opposition, as his pass in his own half was too soft to reach its target.

The final result was 2-3 so Manchester United go through to the next round of the FA Cup, and will  meet Liverpool. Though judging from Alex Ferguson's reaction after the match his players will need to perform a lot better than they did in the second half of yesterday's game.