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Cesc Fábregas will not face disciplinary action over claims that he abused match officials during half-time of Arsenal's 2-1 win over Everton.

The Everton manager, David Moyes, claimed after the match that Fábregas should have been shown a red card for the comments, but the referee, Lee Mason, made no mention of the alleged incident in his post-match report.

Arsène Wenger later denied that Fábregas had even spoken to the officials, and the Football Association has now confirmed that it received no extraordinary incident report from Mason regarding any confrontation with Fábregas.

Fábregas, meanwhile, said the battling 2-1 victory proves Arsenal have the character needed to push Manchester United all the way in the race for the Premier League title.

Arsenal rallied after going behind to what looked an offside goal from Louis Saha, scoring twice in the space of five minutes during the second half.

The victory kept them five points behind Manchester United, who extended their unbeaten run this season to 24 league matches after a 3-1 win over Aston Villa at Old Trafford.

Fábregas said: "We were not up for it at the start against Everton and we were very sloppy. We know that we could have paid for it, but fortunately the team stepped up.

"We realised that if we kept playing like that, we would be going nowhere. It is a very inspiring comeback and maybe we needed something like that to lift us and see that even with injuries and suspensions, we can still have a really strong squad.

"Now we have three days to recover for what will be a big game on Saturday [at Newcastle]."

Labels: abused, claims, clear, Fbregas, Guardian, match, officials

PARIS (AP)—Panathinaikos striker Djibril Cisse will leave the Greek club in the offseason because he has been racially abused by fans this season.

In an interview with sports daily L’Equipe on Monday, Cisse spoke of how he fears the Greek league is becoming increasingly hostile.

“This season the atmosphere in the stands has got worse. Twice already, I have been the victim of monkey chants, of racist insults. It was the same thing again on Saturday night,” Cisse told L’Equipe. “They managed to get inflatable bananas (into the stadium) that they were shaking around every time I touched the ball.”

After Panathinaikos lost 2-1 to league leader Olympiakos in a heated match on Saturday, Cisse announced he would leave even though he has a contract until 2013.

“This summer I’m leaving, that’s for sure. It’s impossible for me here,” Cisse said. “Even though the Pana fans are fantastic, even though the club is great, I don’t want to play in this league any more.”

Cisse was one of four Panathinaikos players who were attacked as fans swarmed onto the field after the final whistle. He recalls a dozen or so fans charging at him.

“I was their target. Some of them hit me and I retaliated to defend myself,” Cisse said. “It’s a disgrace. I’m not going to let things lie. This week, I will make a complaint to UEFA and I can tell you I won’t drop it.”

Cisse, who has scored 41 goals in 49 league games for Panathinaikos, is adamant he will not change his mind.

Panathinaikos had a goal disallowed for offside with the score level at 1-1. Replay showed that it was a refereeing mistake.

Olympiakos president Vangelis Marinakis was involved in a shouting match with Panathinaikos players, and Cisse said he heard Marinakis using an expletive to describe how they had lost the match.

Labels: abused, Cisse, racially, Report