ITMA

It’s That Man Again. Fresh from his triumph at Ewood Park, when he dismissed Arsenal’s Gilberto for the most conservative example of retaliation in the history of the Premiership, then showed great clemency by awarding only a yellow card to Robbie Savage, who had kicked out at the Brazilian twice, Rob Styles continued to demonstrate before a disbelieving Anfield faithful that he knows something about all of the Laws but virtually nothing about the game.

Almost every time a Chelsea player fell down, he was rewarded with a free kick, like a child given a sweet for going to the dentist. Yet the flailing elbows of Ballack and Drogba went unpunished, despite Alonso’s face pouring blood and requiring several stitches, and Essien was permitted to abuse the referee with an outburst that needed no lip reading skills for translation.

Meanwhile, up at Middlesbrough, a similar offence by Bolton’s El Hadji Douif was given a straight red by Alan Wiley. But then, Mr Wiley is a top referee.