No single reason underlies the current decline of Manchester United, unless it be the immutable law governing the fall of empires. One person whose fault it is definitely not is Paul Durkin, the referee of Saturday's match at Old Trafford, blamed by Alex Ferguson for his consistent failure to give penalties to the home side.
Ferguson already restricts his post-match remarks to his club's television station. If his pathetic condemnation of Durkin is the best he can come up with to explain United's fall to ninth place in this morning's Premiership table, he would be doing everyone a favour by expanding his boycott.
Durkin handed out eight yellow cards, five of them to players in red shirts, but the only significant blot on his performance was a failure to spot the elbow which Roy Keane applied to Joe Cole's face in the United penalty area in the 85th minute. A gesture with its origin in frustration rather than malice, it was nonetheless worthy of a red card along with a penalty kick that might have doubled the margin of West Ham's victory.
The United manager's unbecoming but typical petulance failed to disguise his culpability for his team's sixth league defeat of the season, and their fifth in the last seven matches.
Given an injury list including Ryan Giggs, Laurent Blanc, Wes Brown, David May, Ronny Johnsen and Denis Irwin, his decision to award a weekend off to Juan Veron and Ruud van Nistelrooy, while also keeping David Beckham out of the starting line-up, smacked of judgment gone seriously awry.
His refusal to send out his strongest team leaves Ferguson facing a charge of taking the opposition too lightly, one of sport's cardinal sins.
This is a time when United need a run of victories to re-establish the self-confidence that would allow them to mount a realistic defence of their title.
On Saturday, however, their manager paid the price for apparently sharing in the general delusion that a midweek victory over Boavista in the Champions League had reinfused his players with their familiar virtues.
But Joe Cole and Michael Carrick, 20-year-olds more noted for artistry than muscle, stood up well to Keane and Nicky Butt, as did 19-year-old Jermain Defoe.
In the 64th minute Carrick fed Don Hutchison, who pushed the ball up to Defoe. Two touches saw the ball transferred to Paolo di Canio and on to Cole, who turned and accelerated away from Butt, evaded Paul Scholes, drew Mikael Silvestre, and released the ball at the ideal moment to give Sebastien Schemmel room and time to cross.
The right-back clipped the ball low to Di Canio, who swivelled inside the area and aimed a chip to the far post, where Defoe rose above Phil Neville to head past Fabien Barthez.
MAN UTD: Barthez, Gary Neville, O'Shea, Silvestre, Phil Neville, Chadwick (Beckham 59), Butt (Cole 69), Keane, Scholes, Yorke (Fortune 81), Solskjaer. Subs Not Used: Carroll, Wallwork. Booked: Butt, O'Shea, Keane, Scholes, Gary Neville.
WEST HAM: James, Repka, Dailly, Schemmel, Sinclair, Carrick, Hutchison, Cole, Winterburn, Di Canio, Defoe (Camara 84). Subs Not Used: Hislop, Minto, Potts, Courtois. Booked: Schemmel, Hutchison, Di Canio. Goals: Defoe 64.
Referee: P Durkin (England).
