RUUD TALKS ABOUT THE ARSENAL MATCH

Last updated : 02 November 2003 By Editor

"Only when I got home and turned on the TV did I realise what had happened. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I could feel myself being pushed in the back but I didn’t care about that because I was still thinking about the penalty."

"I just wanted to get to dressing-room, and then I felt myself being jostled.

"They simply don’t represent the reality. The TV pictures speak for themselves. I still don’t understand why Wenger was so hard towards me."

And From The Sunday Times:

Van Nistelrooy confirmed that there was another exchange with Vieira in the tunnel half-an-hour after the match. He said he approached the Arsenal captain "hoping that we could put the incident from the game behind us". Vieira did not want to discuss it, and reportedly called Van Nistelrooy a cheat.

The Dutchman said: "If I had been cheating or if I’d collapsed pretending to be injured in order to get him sent off, do you honestly think I’d have approached him afterwards? Never. I couldn’t have looked him in the eye. I thought once the heat of the match had died down, things would happen differently.

"That wasn’t the case. I can understand. He had just been given a red card, he must have been feeling bad. I have to accept his annoyance. I hope it will all be forgotten next time we meet."