Referees. Again.
It´s been clear for a few years now that Wayne Rooney can get away with whatever the feck he likes.
This is my theory as to why. Remember 3-4 seasons ago when Rooney kept getting sent off and having loads of discipline problems? He was often suspended and always distracted during the games, Ferguson had to sub him off many times so that he didn´t get red carded. The FA, seeing that he´s thick as feck and wouldn´t change his ways, basically ordered the refs to turn a blind eye, and soak up all the abuse, so that their precious golden boy would be more marketable, and would stay in form for England.
Rooney now, has the same temper, the same shocking tackles, abuses the refs and linesman just as bad (if not worse) than back then, but yet he never gets sent off anymore, gets yellows for horror tackles, and rarely gets booked for abusing officials.
Paul Scholes, as we saw today is another player who gets away with horror tackles all the time, even more so as he´s now slow and shitty. It´s quite dangerous really as he loves to slide in boots up.
Those are the two glaring examples where I am sure the FA have instructed officials to have leniency. Apart from that I think the majority is down to the fact that the officials feel very intimidated by Ferguson, and crumble under that pressure.