Manchester City have found a way of dealing with poor referees … win despite them!
As the arguments for and against the video assistant referee (VAR) rage on, the Blues simply rode the poverty of the decisions made by referee Lee Mason and and swept aside Cardiff to reach the FA Cup fifth round.
Goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling eased the Blues through a potentially tricky encounter against Championship promotion contenders, in front of a passionate record crowd at the Cardiff City Stadium.
But Leroy Sane was on the rough end of two poor decisions from the officials – otherwise City 's comfortable passage to the next round would have been even easier.
And questions need to be asked about whether the ref neglected his duty of care to the players by refusing to show a red card.
Sane was level with the Bluebirds last defender when Bernardo Silva rifled a beautiful goal into the top corner – and it is even debatable whether he was in the goalkeeper's eye-line as the ball flashed into the net.
And then the Germany international turned on the after-burners to run from deep in his own half, and threaten the home side's goal, only to be hacked down by Joe Bennett.
Bennett was not technically the last man, so a red card was not issued – but the foul itself was nasty enough to be a straight red, and a video ref would have spotted that.
The fact that Sane did not emerge for the second half backs up the fact it was a bad challenge in itself.
By then City were already two goals up, courtesy of another bit of De Bruyne genius and Sterling's 19th of the season.
The Belgium international scored with a free kick under the wall against Bournemouth early last season, and he clearly banked on no-one remembering it as he trundled another under the Cardiff defensive line to open the scoring.
Bernardo shrugged off the injustice of his disallowed goal to scoot down the left and deliver a great cross which had Sterling twisting in mid-air to head past keeper Neil Etheridge.
Sterling should have added to his tally in the second half, but City breezed through the last 45 minutes.
Those wondering where they will get some rest in a packed schedule as they chase four trophies got their answer.
They are good enough to ease their way to wins in games like this, and grab a breather out on the field.
The exception to that is the astonishing De Bruyne, who with ten minutes left, and at 2-0 up, was haring around the field like they were losing a Champions League final.
But grabbing some rest during the game is not much good if the referee does not perform his duty of care to the players, as Sane found out.
Bennett finally got his red card for a second booking in added time after hacking down sub Brahim Diaz.
