Sir Alex Ferguson tells Patrick Vieira that Manchester City get the breaks too ... particularly Mario Balotelli

"From the referee's position, I can see why he didn't give a penalty when Danny Murphy was brought down," he said.

"The ball moved to the angle as Michael Carrick challenged him. From that position, it wasn't clear.

However, he can cite plenty of other instances where his team were wronged.

"We had a terrible decision earlier this season when Newcastle got a penalty and Tottenham could claim the same when Mario Balotelli wasn't sent off and ended up scoring the winning goal," said Ferguson.

"You could go through millions of things like that.

"Maybe smaller clubs feel that (decisions go against them when they play big clubs) but someone said some years ago that we get lots of penalties. It is only averaging out at three a year.

"You can't say that is a lot when you are attacking teams all the time.

"Most managers believe the breaks even themselves out."

"It was a good claim but City could have had a penalty against them at Stoke for a foul by Gareth Barry.

"Every club gets breaks here and there, you get good ones and bad ones.

"It evens itself out over the season, that will never change."

Ferguson used United's home game against Newcastle in November as an example of a major decision affecting his team, when Rio Ferdinand conceded a penalty for a perfectly fair challenge on Hatem Ben Arfa.

Meanwhile, Ferguson confirmed winger Nani would again be missing when United head to Blackburn on Monday.

The Portugal international has missed four games with an ankle injury and was expected to return to training early this week.

"He won't be back until tomorrow and Monday will come too soon," said the United boss.