Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has said that Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is likely to face retrospective action for his elbow on Bournemouth's Tyrone Mings during Saturday's match at Old Trafford.
Ibrahimovic caught the Bournemouth defender in the face while competing for an aerial ball moments after Mings had appeared to stamp on the head of the United striker in an eventful match.
Gallagher believes that the Mings stamp is less conclusive than Ibrahimovic's elbow, although both players could face bans from the Football Association if found guilty of violent conduct.
"I think [the Mings stamp] the most difficult of the two to judge for the reason that only he knows what his actions were. The pictures don't look good and the FA will obviously look at that and process it as they see right. But it's very difficult to judge what his intent was," he told BBC Radio 5 live.
"The pictures do [Ibrahimovic] no favours whatsoever. That will definitely be one that the FA will look at, they'll speak to the officials. Obviously they didn't (see it) because if they'd seen it they would have acted, there's no doubt about that.
"What you have to realise is that every referee is bitterly upset if they make a mistake. It's no good saying to someone, 'I'm not going to give you a match'. If someone misses a penalty you don't kick him out of the team the next week, you have to make sure that next time he takes a penalty he takes it correctly.
"It's about getting the best out of somebody not destroying their confidence. I don't think it does them any good to publicly denounce them. It doesn't do the Premier League any good because they're good referees, they wouldn't be there if they weren't the best."
Both players have denied intentionally looking to harm the other during the action-packed 1-1 draw.
Barney Corkhill
