Head to head: An angry Carragher confronts
Arbeloa.
Liverpool's frustration at
losing out to
Manchester
United in the title race boiled over
when two of their stars were involved in an ugly bust-up on the
pitch. And manager Rafa Benitez added to the bad feeling by
refusing to congratulate rival Sir Alex Ferguson on his 11th title
success at United.
Jamie Carragher and Alvaro Arbeloa had to be restrained by
team-mates as they squared up to each other during the 2-0 away win
over West Bromwich Albion which confirmed relegation for Tony
Mowbray’s side.
The furious players went head-to-head as they rowed over who was
to blame when
West Bromwich went close to scoring minutes from the end of the
game.
Albion’s bad day became worse when it was confirmed that their
striker Roman Bednar has been suspended following allegations he
bought illegal drugs.
Explaining the onfield clash between his players, Benitez
claimed: ‘You could see why Carragher was like he was, we wanted to
keep another clean sheet - Pepe Reina has 20 clean sheets, Edwin
van der Sar (United goalkeeper) has 21.’
Carragher tried to play down the incident with Arbeloa, saying:
‘It happened in the
heat of the moment. It’s forgotten.’
Admitting his disappointment at missing out on the title,
Carragher added: ‘It’s hard to win the Premier League because our
top four teams plus Barcelona are probably the best five sides in
Europe. That’s the challenge we face.’
Carragher is calmed down by his teammates after his
bust-up with Alvaro Arbeloa
The Liverpool manager’s feud with Ferguson sank to new
depths when he twice avoided praising his rival after United
equalled Liverpool by taking their league title tally to
18.
He said: ‘I say congratulations to Manchester United. They have
done well. I prefer to say my congratulations to them. They are a
good club, a big club.’
Pressed upon whether he would send a letter, as per tradition,
to the title-winning
boss, he added: ‘I’ve had normally to be polite and respect the
other manager at the end of the season. He has said a lot of things
I didn’t like. I say congratulations to
Manchester United because they have won. And that’s it.’
Four months ago, Benitez aired a list of grievances against
Ferguson, who retorted that something must have ‘disturbed’ the
Spaniard.
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez saw his side win at
West Brom but then refused to congratulate Sir Alex Ferguson on
Manchester United's title triumph
Benitez pointed to the strength of the two clubs’
respective squads as to why he has lost out in the league. ‘They
have quality, especially the quality on the bench,’ he said.
‘Against us they had Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Dimitar Berbatov
on the bench. When they can change players of this value, these
players can make the difference.
'So they have these kind of players, we have less of these. When
you pay £20-£30million for each of these players, it is
easier.’
