'In all the football matches I have watched during my 27 years in England I cannot say that I have ever seen a game as quick, as pulsating and as tense as the one we saw at Old Trafford yesterday. Maybe it was the build-up to the game, or perhaps it was what was at stake for both teams, but I have never seen a match that was so difficult to referee.
Mike Riley will come in for some criticism for the penalty he gave against Sol Campbell, but that was one of the hardest decisions a referee will ever have to make. It is true, there was no contact with Wayne Rooney's leg, but how many times did you have to watch it on a television replay before you came to that conclusion? At first glance it looks exactly like a penalty, only a new angle and slow motion shows it up to be something else.
In a split second, Campbell puts in his leg and then withdraws it. If you a defender is in the box and sticks out his leg and withdraws it as quickly that gives the referee the most difficult decision. All the referee can see is the defender's leg, the opponent and the ball. In that moment it is very difficult to make the judgment as to whether he has made contact.
The only criticism that you can make of Campbell is that once you stick your leg out like that in the penalty area then, as a centre-back, you are inviting trouble. Rooney has managed to trick him into doing it which, for many forwards, is an achievement in itself. Because apart from that, Campbell did not put a foot wrong.
It looked to me that Ljungberg had done with Ferdinand exactly what Rooney managed to do with Campbell - he drew him into making a challenge. By running across the United defender, Ljungberg gave Ferdinand no alternative but to foul him. The ball was going away from him at the time but if Riley had given the foul then he would probably have had to send Ferdinand off.
The last incident that went unpunished was Ruud van Nistelrooy's kick to Ashley Cole's knee. On television it looked absolutely terrible and was definitely a red card offence.
But when you put aside the decisions that could have gone either way, you have to acknowledge that Sir Alex Ferguson got his tactics spot on. When you play against Arsenal you have to do everything you can to make sure that you snuff their attacks out and if you get chances then you have to take them. That is exactly what United managed to do.
For all the pressure and tension it was a great game to watch. The defensive players came out on top and even multi-talented individuals like Paul Scholes were reduced, at times, to bit part roles. It was always going to be a tense affair because the history between these two teams was present in everything that happened yesterday - and will be for some time to come.'