Since I didn’t think Vincent Kompany’s challenge on Nani merited a red card, clearly I wouldn’t have supported Glen Johnson being sent off for his tackle on Joleon Lescott.

But it’s a piece of nonsense that both weren’t treated in the same way.

How can two referees see such similar incidents differently? I don’t think Mancini wanted the Liverpool player to be dismissed as much as his desire to express his unbounded frustration.

And I don’t blame him?though Steven Gerrard was also right pointing out the City boss’s evident contradiction.

We can all argue to death about how to help referees, whether or not and how far technology should be employed, but surely we’re all in agreement that they need help?

And, on both occasions, wouldn’t we all have felt just a little bit better if the referee had fronted up to the camera or to the press afterwards and explained things from his perspective?

Where’s the harm in that?