What has honesty got to do with anything? Unless you're intimating that he is biased and has no professional integrity, I'm not sure what you mean. If we're going down that rabbit hole I don't have much to offer to that particular conversation because I think it is somewhat ridiculous and without anything to support it, it's just tedious. But maybe you mean something else by that term.
Perhaps he didn't think Mitoma dived to give a yellow in the first place during real time and without replays. There is a line between complete dive and lacking strength and balance and going down more easily than is reasonable for the average player in that situation. Either way, whatever the reason was, no it doesn't justify other players taking a decision to dive so I don't really understand that line of argument. But again, deliberate cheating is something that I think needs more attention on stamping out, and until that happens of course they're going to try their luck, but it isn't acceptable or desirable. It should be punished after the game and then it wouldn't even matter what Rashford saw or thought about, they'd both be getting punished if found to dive. We can keep bashing refs for missing them or seeing them inconsistently, but actually...until they're given the tools within the game to deal with it, the amount of cheating dictates that some of it will get by the ref. It's inevitable.
To be honest I find a lot of this about particular fouls to be microanalysis of stuff that really wasn't as important to the game as you're making out. They're just...fouls. Yellow cards. Refs make dozens of those decisions every game, some aren't going to be absolutely correct or 100% consistent. Let's get over it eh. The logic that because the ref misses some decisions it justifies childish petulance is weird. They're grown men, they own their own actions.
There's nothing wrong with your reading comprehension. I do believe and I am suggesting that it was a dishonest and biased refereeing performance, and the ref made a rod for his own back with many of the incidents that happened during the game. However, due to Brighton being media darlings and United being the very opposite of it, as has been obvious by Sky's coverage on the night and by the uproar over one missed penalty for Brighton (while nobody's said a thing about numerous incidents going against us), nobody's going to scrutinise that refereeing performance. And that is probably a bigger reason for him being biased against us than something else like Man City being his favourite team, a United supporter shagging his mum or anything like that. But he was biased on the night and it did influence the game in many small ways, like Antony being booked instead of Estupiñan, which forced us to take him off and replace him with the ineffective Sancho.
Like I've said, there were many instances where he had to book Brighton players or penalise fouls by Brighton where he chose not to do so, giving them relative impunity on the night, while not giving the same leniency towards United. Over a game of 90 minutes, that frustration adds up and had he simply given an obvious foul against Estupiñan on Antony (and it's obvious that the contact was enough to give a foul considering the game-changing foul he then blew for on Enciso) there wouldn't be a kick-out by Antony and there would be no brawl. Caicedo lunged in on Shaw on the touchline with studs showing and being out of control, and then stamped on Rashford's foot, both incidents passed without yellow cards, Mitoma dived twice without a yellow, and grabbed the ball with his hands to stop us going on the attack without being booked for any of those incidents, but all the discussion is how poor United's discipline was because they got frustrated by biased refereeing and Rashford attempted a dive because the referee showed that he allowed it. And the prevailing discussion, even on here, is how Casemiro should've been sent off for a sliding tackle that resulted in an advantage played that ended with them having a shot from the 18 yard line, which the rules are very clear about shouldn't be penalised since he hasn't stopped a promising attack at all.
But as we've seen with us, a decision doesn't have to be incorrect for everyone to whip themselves into a frenzy over United and refereeing calls, like the Bruno goal v City which was technically correct under the law, but somehow became our fault and needed to be compensated for by not giving us a favourable decision for the rest of the season. Imagine one of our players had won that free kick that Enciso dived to win, which then led to us putting pressure on the opposing team leading to a game-winning penalty in the 99th minute. Do you think it would've been mentioned a) less, b) as much as, or c) more than the Enciso dive's been mentioned? Here's a hint: Compare how much Brighton's "penalty after the final whistle" has been mentioned compared to how much United's "penalty after the final whistle" has been mentioned by pundits and online.
And let's keep in mind that this is the very same ref who broke the VAR protocol that they've been using all season to get Casemiro sent off for a second time this season, and who was the first referee to send him off as well, even if I'd mainly put the blame on the VAR in that game who showed him intentionally misleading footage.
On a weekly basis we see similar tackles, where a player is stepping into a challenge, gets the timing slightly wrong and catches the opponent above the boot. It has been consistent throughout the season that these haven't been VAR red cards. To cross the threshold for intervention, the VAR is looking for a player coming in with force, leaving the ground or making contact from behind high above the boot.
Take
Virgil van Dijk's challenge on
Amadou Onana in September, when the Liverpool defender caught Onana higher on the shin after stepping into a challenge. Referee Anthony Taylor issued a yellow card, which wasn't upgraded after a VAR check.
If the referee gives a red card in these situations it won't be overturned, but they haven't been awarded through VAR.
(Dale Johnson's ESPN column)