[jambutty]

Originally Posted by shakermaker

My opinion on the issue of fairness (or lack of it) at Old Trafford stems from the trends of statistics set by the referees. There is an irrefutable trend that shows how decisions are more likely to go in favour of Manchester United when they play at home. You suggest that this phenomena is down to the attitude of the opposition team and their subsequent behaviour, and I see absolutely zero logic in that. Take Pedro Mendes' goal for Tottenham that Mark Clattenburg disallowed even though it was a yard behind the goal line. How was that anything but a humongous error from the referee in favour of Manchester United? This is not an isolated incident as you know.
Considering the wealth of similar examples, I can't think of another explanation for the trend except the high probability of referees bucking under the pressure of the big games.

This irrefutable trend is based on what the spectators see and how they think the incident should have been judged. I doubt if one of them was a referee and in any case they see things from a different angle. It all boils down to what the referee actually sees and there is no one on this planet who can corroborate what he sees. They can only guess and that is nowhere near good enough to make a case.

A ball over the goal line can look different from different angles. To be certain you have to be either on the goal line or behind it. Viewed from the pitch side it could look not completely over the line and the law is that all of the ball has to be past all of the line. I would also remind you that the actual line is still part of the playing pitch.

All your wealth of examples is based on what the spectators see and that is more often than not, not the reality.