Wayne Rooney has apologised for a four-letter outburst into a live TV camera during his side’s 4-2 win over West Ham yesterday.
The England star’s expletive appeared to be directed at the Sky Sports cameraman after he was celebrating his third goal.
The striker’s hat-trick helped United turn around a 2-0 deficit.
Rooney’s outburst prompted an immediate on-air apology from Sky Sports and Rooney released a statement saying: “I want to apologise for any offence that may have been caused by my goal celebration, especially any parents or children that were watching.
“Emotions were running high and on reflection my heat-of-the-moment reaction was inappropriate. It was not aimed at anyone in particular.”
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The FA said it would examine the footage before deciding whether to take any action against Rooney.
Manchester United struck four goals after the interval to extend their lead at the top of the table.
Rooney inspired the comeback with a sweet free-kick over the wall, and then drew his team level at 2-2 when he collected a cross and fired across Robert Green into the corner.
After converting a spot kick for his third, Javier Hernandez added a fourth as West Ham United tired. As energetically as West Ham played, this might be more than a defeat in a battle to avoid the drop as they slid into the relegation zone. The introduction at the interval of Hernandez, and later Dimitar Berbatov, enlivened United, who had also overcome a two-goal deficit to win away to Blackpool this season.
After this, Sir Alex Ferguson, in the second of a five-match touchline ban for questioning the impartiality of Martin Atkinson, the referee, last month, might more to say about the Premier League’s ‘respect’ campaign. He might be joined in his condemnation by Avram Grant after Lee Mason, the referee, awarded three penalties, but failed to dismiss Nemanja Vidic for hauling down Demba Ba.
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Ferguson benefited hugely for United’s third goal to give them the lead, when Fabio da Silva kicked the ball against the arm of Matthew Upson from a yard away, but he might be less happy with the two kicks against his team.
There was little argument with the first penalty, awarded when Patrice Evra handed when Carlton Cole tried to flick the ball over him, but the second spot was questionable. Cole tumbled under a challenge from Vidic as he approached the penalty area, with the United defender adamant that contact had on the edge if not outside the box. Television replies appeared inconclusive.
On both occasions, Mark Noble stepped up and converted, sending Tomasz Kuszczak the wrong way with a slotted kick, and then hitting the second so hard that it rebounded from the roof of the net and out.
United passed crisply and confidently enough with Antonio Valencia the pick of their attacking players. The winger had the beating for pace and trickery of Wayne Bridge for much of the afternoon, but his dangerous crosses narrowly evaded a team-mate. The ball squirmed past Robert Green, on one occasion, for Manuel da Costa to slide in and clear. The defender also cleared with Ryan Giggs poised to score.
United began brightly with Chris Smalling forcing Green to tip a header over inside five minutes, but their defenders were uncharacteristically undone by long balls. Cole profited from Thomas Hitzlsperger’s long pass to win the first penalty and later Vidic was booked for hauling down Ba. Park Ji Sung should have done better when the ball fell to him after a poor Bridge clearance, but he could only hit Green. After several near things at the start of the second half, United finally found their target.
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“You have to say that being two goals down at half time was a travesty in terms of our possession and the chances that we created,” Ferguson said. “But you are 2-0 down at half time and under the cosh in that respect, but you have to go for it.
“I brought on Javier Hernandez and put Ryan to left back and said to myself that goal difference doesn’t matter, we just had to go for it and we managed to change the game around.
Ferguson added, of the decision to award West Ham a second penalty for a foul by Vidic: “The penalty kick is outside the box. That was an unfortunate decision for us. He could have been sent off at the time he went through.
“It was six of one and half a dozen of the other. it would have been harsh but he could have been sent off for it”
This was some retribution for United, who had come to rue some visits to Upton Park when in pursuit of the title. Ludek Miklosko denied Andrew Cole with a string of incredible saves in the closing fixture in 1995. There were similar scenarios in the meetings three years either side of that day. In April 1992, West Ham were already relegated but beat United to help Leeds United to win the title and in March 1998 a draw helped Arsenal to gain crucial momentum.