I JUST KICKED A BOTTLE :SAYS WENGER:

Arsene Wenger has defended himself against the red card he received in the final seconds of Arsenal's 2-1 defeat at Manchester United on Saturday evening.

Wenger was sent to the stands by referee Mike Dean after booting a water bottle down the touchline in frustration after Robin van Persie had a last-gasp equaliser disallowed for offside.

The Frenchman initially headed for the seats behind the dugout, only to find there weren't any, and was eventually ushered towards the tunnel as his side suffered a defeat which was very hard to take.

"I just kicked a bottle of water," claimed Wenger.

"I did it because I was disappointed, not because I thought it wasn't offside.

"The fourth official called the referee over and he sent me off. I don't know what to say. There were 30 seconds to go and I didn't know where to go.

"I didn't know you were not allowed to kick a water bottle, although it was a good kick."

Wenger described the eventual outcome as "unbelievable" - a word which could have summed up the contest as a whole or half a dozen individual parts.

Although Sir Alex Ferguson claimed it was not a penalty when Darren Fletcher chopped down Andrey Arshavin with the scores still goalless, he was in a very small minority.

Thankfully for Arsenal, Arshavin scored himself shortly afterwards, rocketing a shot past a startled Ben Foster.

Alternatively, Wenger might have been describing Foster's feet-first save to deny Robin van Persie at the start of the second-half.

In addition there was the penalty that was given for United when Manuel Almunia slid into Wayne Rooney which provided the equaliser; Rooney getting to his feet to send the Arsenal keeper the wrong way, and Abou Diaby's own goal shortly afterwards that ultimately proved to be the matchwinner.

"We were the better team but we lost the game," groaned Wenger. "It is very difficult to swallow."

In an effort to follow the FA's instruction not to attack referees, Wenger attempted to bite his tongue.

"It was an Old Trafford dish," was his reaction to Rooney's penalty, adding that he felt the Arshavin incident was a penalty, while admitting he was not the most objective observer.

The Rooney incident did raise inevitable questions about the incident involving Eduardo against Celtic in midweek that seems certain to land the Croat with a two-game ban for "deceiving the referee".

"I hope UEFA were watching last night (Super Cup tie between Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk) because they will be charging Lionel Messi for headbutting," he observed.

"I can guarantee over the weekend I will be able to find 50 similar situations where UEFA must take action or they will have singled out Eduardo as a victim.

"There is no logic to what they have done. We have clear evidence he was touched."

The same was undoubtedly true of Rooney, Dean's decision ultimately proving pivotal as United fought their way to a famous win.

"Coming back from 1-0 down against Arsenal was a hard task," said Ferguson.

"But we got a bit of a break with the own goal and I am delighted with the win."

Rooney has now scored five goals in five games this season, although Ferguson feels he should hand over his man-of-the-match champagne to Fletcher who, his one indiscretion apart, was superb.

"Darren was the outstanding player on the field," said Ferguson.

"It was a marvellous performance. He always does well on the big occasion. If I had been choosing the man-of-the-match, I would have given it to Darren."

Meanwhile Rooney said he was happy to take over penalty duties at Old Trafford.

He said: "No-one really knew who was our penalty taker. Then we got one at Burnley but Michael Carrick unfortunately missed it so from then on I said I'd take them - and thankfully I scored today."

On the match, he continued on Sky Sports News: "It was a good game.

"I thought we were much better in the second half. Arsenal had a lot of possession in the first half but didn't really hurt us - apart from the goal.

"The second half we knew we had to be better and thankfully we were. I tried getting on the end of the ball and I've done so and the goalkeeper took my legs from me - so I've had no option.

"Last season our record against the big teams wasn't great and Arsenal have started the season well, so we needed to win today.

"Forwards, if they score goals, tend to get man of the match awards - but I think Darren Fletcher was head and shoulders over anyone on the pitch today."