Jose Mourinho and Danny Murphy declared open season on Man City players

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho set the tone when he made the sly suggestion, in derby week, that Manchester City players go over in a puff of wind.

A few days later former Liverpool star Danny Murphy added a vial of poison to the mix by
castigating Swansea players for not hitting Blues players with 'a few badly-timed tackles'.

And to complete this toxic brew of bile and perfidy, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger suggested Raheem Sterling is a serial diver .

The upshot of this insidious attempt to set an agenda is that Mourinho, who was principally trying to influence the ref for the derby, and Murphy, have got a result two months later.

Leroy Sane will miss some big City games, Kevin De Bruyne has somehow escaped serious injury in a series of wild tackles - the latest by James McClean on Wednesday night - and teenager Brahim Diaz was subjected to a disgusting assault for which perpetrator Matt Phillips received a yellow card. 

Neil Warnock's old-fashioned notion English football needs a rough edge to it, and Murphy's assertion that thuggery is not only acceptable but advisable, need to be consigned to the dustbin of history and managers like Mourinho who try to influence refs should be charged.

Getting Fifa to change the rules to snuff out this attitude will be tough – the rest of the world does not need it, because all of those challenges would have brought a straight red card in Spain, Germany or Timbuktu.

Pep Guardiola has called for more protection for ALL players, not just his City stars, who are clearly being targeted by lesser mortals who cannot cope with them on a football level.

Referees like the outrageously bad Bobby Madley, are utterly neglecting their duty of care, which should be the top item on every ref's list of things to do.

When you see a player launch himself off the ground, thigh-high and rake his studs down the length of a player's legs and deem it a bookable offence, you become an accomplice to the crime rather than the arbiter.

So the referees are failing - what can be done?

First of all, the ridiculous rule that offences which have elicited a yellow card cannot be retrospectively viewed by the FA needs to go.