The most damning statistic to me was their 22 fouls, compared to our 12. We all see the “big” teams foul to break up any potential counter attack but how Maguire, McTominay and Hannibal didn’t get yellows and how Lindelof didn’t get a second defeats me. The pull back by Maguire, the deliberate trips with no possibility of getting the ball, and simply taking Wilf out had to be yellow card offences and no doubt would all have been yellows if it was a Palace player committing them. Indeed to prove that after at least 3 of those fouls, the first yellow was to Hughes. His was definitely a yellow card offence, but theirs were just as bad if not worse.

Perhaps Atkinson didn’t want to upset them in his last (thank the Lord) game.