Bolton's former top Premier League referee talks football - every Wednesday

I WAS horrified to see Luke Shaw’s injury on Tuesday night – and then appalled to see that Hector Moreno was not handed a red card from referee Nicola Rizzoli.

It is a horrendous challenge and quite how one of Europe’s top referees does not punish the PSV man is absolutely baffling.

Some people have said there was no intent – but that doesn’t come into it these days.

The question you need to ask is ‘was Moreno in control of his actions?’ I think not.

Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force and endangering the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.

Reckless with excessive force or brutality endangering the player's safety is a red card and while that would not have made United or Shaw feel any better, at least it would have satisfied the laws of the game.

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THE town could, and should, have been painted red this weekend – as the Premier League’s referees missed a number of key decisions.

Stephen Naismith, Scott Dann and Gabriel Paulista are lucky boys who, in my view, should be facing a suspension.

Let’s take them one by one.

Naismith scored a perfect hat-trick against Chelsea who’ve had a wretched start to the defence of their title. But was the Scotland international guilty of violent conduct when he kicked out at Branislav Ivanovic early on in the game?

If that had been Diego Costa everyone would have been up in arms, demanding a ban and whipping themselves into a frenzy. But Naismith’s indiscretion went under the radar and I think the Everton man got a helping hand from the media too.

Andre Marriner didn’t spot it, and none of the BT pundits have made much of it either – they were too busy slinging mud at Jose Mourinho and asking where it has all gone wrong.

Costa was also reckless with his forearm in a challenge against Seamus Coleman, an offence that was not as serious as the Naismith incident, but BT appeared to forget about that as well until I dropped a text to one of the presenters.

Almost by magic, up pops Howard Webb, backing the officials and sitting on the fence.

I was looking forward to watching Sergio Aguero on Tuesday night at the Etihad but he was sidelined at the weekend by a challenge that I believe warranted a red card for Crystal Palace defender Scott Dann.

It was a reckless tackle that endangered the safety of the player with excessive force, i.e. the criteria to send someone off, but Mike Jones’s recognition of that kind offence wasn’t good enough for this level of football.

Then, arguably the worst of the lot, was Gabriel Paulista, who somehow looks to have escaped retrospective punishment from the Football Association for his elbow on Stoke City’s Marko Arnautovic.

The FA should have been straight on the phone to Jon Moss asking if he’d seen it. If, as you’d expect, he said he did not see the incident, then the next question is ‘would you have issued a red card if you had spotted it?’ I’d imagine the answer to that is a most definite “yes”.

It is double standards to pull up other players on similar things and then let something like this one slip under the net. Players who have received suspensions based on video evidence could rightly point at this incident as say “why did I get a ban, when this fella has got away scot-free?”

You can’t pick and choose when you want to apply retrospective punishment. And the Arsenal defender should be staring at a three-game ban, in my opinion.

*** IF managers can’t seem to agree on simulation, then what chance have the referees got?

We had a rather bizarre case on Saturday when West Brom’s Callum McManaman went down under a challenge from Southampton’s Matt Targett, only for his penalty appeal to be turned down by ref Stuart Atwell.

Baggies boss Tony Pulis was angry at his midfielder and said he’d be “having a word on Monday” after feeling McManaman had gone to ground too easily looking for a penalty.

By comparison, Ronald Koeman admitted the Saints had been a “little lucky” that a spot kick wasn’t given.

At first view, I thought it was a penalty. And I don’t think anyone would have made an issue out of it later on had Atwell pointed to the spot.

But it does show what a minefield the whole issue of simulation really is for the match officials.

McManaman may have been taking evasive action and you could argue that if Atwell did not feel the contact was sufficient to give a penalty, then he should have issued a caution to the West Brom man.

I think some common sense prevailed there. Not every foul, handball or incident of this type need necessarily have the referee reaching for his pocket.

Atwell will take charge of Swansea v Everton this weekend as his rehabilitation into the main stream continues.

It’s ridiculous to think he was axed from the Select Group in the first place and I hope he grabs this second opportunity with both hands.

Lee Mason’s exile from the top flight continues, and it’s getting beyond a joke.

The Bolton ref is still paying the price for what was perceived to be an indifferent display at Crystal Palace v Arsenal. It is now six weeks since his last top-flight game and he’ll be doing Nottingham Forest v Middlesbrough this weekend.

Kevin Friend had a similarly indifferent display in the Liverpool v West Ham game but is back on Premier League duty this weekend at Bournemouth.

Lee will be back in action soon, I’m sure, but the way he’s being hung out to dry leaves a very bad taste in my mouth and will make his return all the more difficult when it does arrive.