Alex Ferguson yesterday reignited his psychological warfare with Arsene Wenger with his most outspoken attack on Arsenal yet, accusing them of being ill-disciplined and manipulating the system, and he urged the Football Association to make an example of Patrick Vieira, reports Daniel Taylor.
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Ferguson believes Arsenal, whose vice-chairman, David Dein, is one of two FA vice-chairmen and among the Premiership's most influential figures, have used their considerable powers to delay Vieira's disrepute hearing for allegedly elbowing Chelsea's Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink on St Stephen's Day.
The case will not be heard until a week tomorrow, and the Manchester United manager is also angry that Thierry Henry's disciplinary hearing today for angrily confronting referee Graham Poll after Arsenal's defeat by Newcastle in December has not taken place.
"I find it truly amazing they haven't been dealt with by now. But Arsenal have been very clever in delaying the hearings," Ferguson said. "Now everyone will have forgotten what happened. They'll go to the FA with Henry and say: 'Ah, well, he just showed a bit of Gallic temper, he's French' and he'll probably get only a one-game ban.
"If these cases were dealt with nearer the time, Henry and Vieira may have got more than three-match suspensions. But three months? What's happening there?
"They wouldn't have waited for three months if it was an United player. It would have been Sing Sing for our player. They would have been on death row for six weeks. But our disciplinary record is tremendous. I'm very proud of it."
In a clear reference to Vieira, Ferguson went on to urge the FA to take more severe measures against players guilty of elbowing opponents.
"If you elbow someone once and get banned for the automatic three matches and then do it again, another three matches is not enough," said Ferguson. "When someone is repeatedly guilty of elbowing he doesn't deserve a place in the game. He deserves to be in the stand, as his opponent could be."
Of more immediate concern to Ferguson is the return of skipper Roy Keane and Laurent Blanc for tonight's match. Keane missed Sunday's draw at Derby after picking up a knee injury during last week's Champions League clash with Nantes while Blanc went down with flu.
Their return will force Ferguson into making changes to the side held 2-2 at Pride Park. David Beckham, Juan Sebastian Veron, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs were the midfield quartet and either Veron or Scholes may stand down.
In defence, Ronny Johnsen came in for his first game since September and Denis Irwin played at right-back. With Phil Neville also challenging for a place, both could move to the bench for the crucial game.
Tottenham's injury jinx has struck again and manager Glenn Hoddle fears he may lose three of the players who helped Spurs beat Sunderland 2-1 at White Hart Lane on Saturday.
Leading scorer Les Ferdinand, who scored the winning goal in that game, aggravated a groin strain and is doubtful. So too are Tim Sherwood (groin) and Simon Davies (calf). Spurs are definitely without Darren Anderton (hamstring), Steffen Iversen (groin) and Oyvind Leonhardsen (calf), as well as longer term injury victims Stephen Carr (knee), Steffen Freund (knee), Gary Doherty (broken leg), Stephen Clemence and Chris Armstrong (both groin).
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