Source: Telegraph
Sir Alex Ferguson dampens title talk after United's comeback against Tottenham
The United manager saw his side score five goals in 22 second-half minutes to recover from a 2-0 half-time deficit, but they benefited from a dubious 56th-minute penalty award from referee Howard Webb.[LNB]The official judged that Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes had tripped Michael Carrick, although replays suggested the decision was wrong – a theory backed up by furious Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp.[LNB] Related ArticlesTevez ignites United revivalGameZone: United v ArsenalClubs adapting to new realityPremier League actionChampions League chumsTottenham manager Harry Redknapp wants Roman Pavlyuchenko to stayEven Ferguson felt it had been a fortunate call, although his obvious pleasure at the manner in which his team played thereafter did not extend to him celebrating what would be the 11th English league title of his career.[LNB]'It would have made the title race wide open if we had lost this,' said Ferguson.[LNB]'We would have been level with Liverpool with a game in hand and these games in hand don't matter to me. The best indication is the points you have at this moment.[LNB]'We have five games left, our opponents Liverpool and Chelsea have four, and we are whittling them down one by one. We are in a better position today than we were on Wednesday and we are one goal better off than we were on Wednesday.[LNB]'But I don't even think about Liverpool. What we have to remember is how slow we played in the first half and make sure we play at our pace. We will be much better.[LNB]'It was a bit fortunate,' he said of the penalty. 'Football is funny like that. Last week we were knocked out of the FA Cup by not getting a penalty kick. It doesn't deflect from our second-half performance.'[LNB]The Scot went on the dedicate his side's resurgence to unsettled Carlo Tevez who came on as a 58th minute substitute.[LNB]'We were too slow, too casual in the first half,' he said. 'We needed to speed up in the second half and Tevez was responsible for that. He got the rest of the team playing.[LNB]'We had to get the first goal quite early. It wasn't a foregone conclusion after that by any means but it gave us impetus.'[LNB]Cristiano Ronaldo converted the penalty and added another goal, with Wayne Rooney also scoring twice. Dimitar Berbatov was the last man on the mark to cancel out the first-half efforts by Darren Bent and Luka Modric in emphatic fashion.[LNB]After such a poor first-half showing, the manner of United's comeback stands them in good stead ahead of their Champions League semi-final first leg meeting with Arsenal at Old Trafford on Wednesday.[LNB]Rooney insisted that Ferguson had not been angry with his players at the interval.[LNB]'He just said if we scored one goal we would have a chance of winning the game, and thankfully we did that.[LNB]'We know we're in a great position. We're now three points clear with a game in hand and have to make sure we take advantage of that. We've got five games left and it's ours to throw away.[LNB]'This gives us a lot of belief and confidence going into the mid-week game.'[LNB]
