After Wednesday night's disgraceful scenes of referee intimidation and outright contempt for officialdom from Chelsea's senior players and Ashley Cole in particular, I had hoped that the press furore would have made some other top players in the English Premier League temper this side of their behaviour for the weekend's fixtures but, alas, it was not to be.

Liverpool's Javier Mascherano may have got the backing of his obviously biased manager Rafa Benitez but there can have been few watchers without the red-tinted spectacles on who didn't think he deserved his second yellow card and subsequent red card for persistent dissent against Manchester United yesterday.
Benitez cried that the decision ruined the game as a spectacle and maybe it did but that is hardly the fault of the referee when a player constantly snipes and harangues him about every decision he makes on the field. Mascherano was like a rabid dog spitting and snarling at referee Steve Bennett throughout the first half and ran twenty yards to get involved in the situation that ultimately saw him getting his marching orders. The fact that his team had originally received the free kick from Bennett's decision to penalise a foul on Fernando Torres shouldn't b overlooked!

Ashley Cole's blatant back-turning dissent to the spineless Mike Riley at White Hart Lane on Wednesday night as he protested his innocence for committing a high and dangerous lunge on Alan Hutton was disgusting to watch, the epitome of overpaid, spoilt brat footballers who don't feel they have to show respect to anyone at any time. He fully deserved a second booking for the dissent and should have walked. Mascherano got what he deserved and did. Now we need consistency amongst referees and a zero tolerance stance from here on in.

It's been hilarious watching figures such as Sir Alex Ferguson and Chelsea captain John Terry saying how something has to be done to protect referees when they are the worst culprits of intimidation in the whole league. Football at the top level in England is rapidly turning into a bad joke, the FA now have a chance, through a zero tolerance stance on many issues such as diving, dangerous tackles and dissent, to try once and for all to clean up the game. I hope they don't throw it away.

(Image copyright Stu Forster / Getty Images)