“They were on the end of some rough refereeing decisions in the closing stages, but they had two men sent off for acts of brainlessness to rival Chris Smalling, and were lucky not to see Samir Nasri dismissed as well.”

“City's task was made much easier by Smalling, who received two yellow cards in eight minutes just before halftime.”

“But while Ferguson was still screaming blue murder over an unpunished cynical trip by Luiz on the England man, Zhirkov induced a Smalling twitch as he darted forward.”