Matt Maher: Ref justice? Why it is hard not to have sympathy with Aston Villa and Jhon Duran

The only time the Villa boss ever spoke about officiating was to say he wouldn’t be speaking about it. No criticism was ever issued in its direction.

Yet for the past few weeks it feels he has barely talked about anything else. Post-match press conferences in consecutive away Premier League matches were dominated by a discussion on refereeing decisions, while Emery devoted the bulk of his programme notes ahead of Monday’s 2-2 draw with Brighton to the subject, putting forward an argument for why he believes officials should make more use of VAR.

Regular readers of his space won’t be surprised to learn we will not be backing the Spaniard up on that point. The long-held view of his writer is football would be better off if VAR disappeared completely.

Yet when it comes to the cause of Emery’s frustration, the recent decisions he believes have gone against his team at important times in key games, it is hard not to have some sympathy.

That is particularly true when it comes to the red card and subsequent three-match ban received by Jhon Duran for an alleged stamp in the 3-0 Boxing Day defeat at Newcastle. It is less the incident itself which feels cause for irritation, than the comparison to how similar events elsewhere were handled and what it says about the inconsistencies in approach and - most importantly - the big problem it reveals in how the current laws and FA protocols are drawn up.

We are not talking, at least in this debate, about the two-match ban eventually handed down to Matheus Cunha following the altercation which occurred at the end of last month’s 2-1 defeat to Ipswich.