Manchester United are given more injury-time at the end of matches to equalize or score winning goals than their English Premier League rivals, a study has revealed.
Owen’s 96th minute winner at Old Trafford left Manchester City livid.
As the row over the near seven minutes of added time accorded to United to win the Manchester derby with a last-gasp Michael Owen goal continues, the Guardian newspaper probed the official injury-time statistics.They looked at league matches at United’s Old Trafford ground since the start of the 2006-07 season and revealed that, on average, there has been over a minute of extra time added by referees when the English champions do not have the lead.
This is compared to when they are in front, but United have a reputation for scoring late goals on their ways to claiming three straight Premier League crowns.
In 48 games when Alex Ferguson’s men were in front, the average amount of stoppage time was 191.35 seconds.
In 12 matches when United were drawing or losing there was an average of 257.17 seconds.
In mitigation, the study revealed that the average stoppage time added at Old Trafford is below that at the home grounds of top four rivals Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.
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