• Premier League Plays of the Day

Plays of the Day: Never a penalty

Manchester United had it easy against QPR © Getty Images

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On a day that saw Manchester United build an eight-point lead over Manchester City in the Premier League, we round up the best and worst of the action...

Another officiating disaster
Patrick Vieira's claim about big clubs getting big decisions has come to fruition throughout the weekend, first at Chelsea when Wigan were robbed on at least one of the two goals they conceded, and secondly at Manchester United, who benefited from a dire penalty decision at Old Trafford. Not only was Ashley Young clearly offside when he received the ball inside the QPR area with the scores at 0-0, but he also tumbled with barely a finger laid on him as ref Lee Mason pointed to the spot without hesitation.

So to summarise, it was offside and not a foul. Other than that, Mason was bang on. Oh, and to rub salt into the wound he sent the QPR player off too.

Beaten before they started
When the team sheets dropped at Old Trafford ahead of United's 2-0 victory it was instantly notable that QPR skipper Joey Barton was missing from the entire matchday squad. Asked for the reason, boss Mark Hughes explained: "Joey has nine bookings and we can't afford to lose him for some of the key games coming up. So I took the decision not to risk him."

Roughly translated, Hughes was saying he was looking forward to playing his part in title No. 20 arriving at Old Trafford.

Me and you against the rest
Such was United's dominance in the first half at Old Trafford that all sorts of statistics were being thrown up about passing accuracy and possession. The best one, though, was the fact that Michael Carrick (81) & Paul Scholes (76) made 39 more first-half passes (157 in total) than the entire QPR team.

We call it the Adel Taarabt effect.

Silva Service
No-one embodies Manchester City's recent decline more than David Silva, who looked a shoo-in for Footballer of the Year at times early in the season - only to disappoint in 2012. Before Christmas he scored five goals and provided eight assists; since then, he has no goals and four assists. If he carries on like this, he'll turn into Stewart Downing.

Outtatheway!
Thomas Vermaelen has brought a lot of much-needed stability to Arsenal's defence since returning from injury, but he was at fault for both of QPR's goals last weekend - and his dire run continued in the first half against Manchester City, as he got in the way of team-mate Robin van Persie's goalbound header, sending the ball onto the crossbar. City keeper Joe Hart couldn't have saved it any better.

Bondotelli
The ever-entertaining Mario Balotelli was, according to several sources on Twitter, wearing a YOLO (You Only Live Once) T-shirt under his City jersey. Maybe he was putting his hand up for a spot in the new James Bond film? All the classic villainous traits were there: he sent his studs straight into Alex Song's knee, somehow escaping punishment for what was a terrible 'tackle'. There was justice of sorts later in the match, when he saw red for two yellows.

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