Ibrahimovic escapes FA punishment

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo will be free to face West Brom tomorrow evening after escaping retrospective punishment from the Football Association for incidents in Manchester United’s 2-1 victory at Crystal Palace.

Referee Craig Pawson gave Rojo a yellow card for his two-footed lunge at Wilfried Zaha during the first half at Selhurst Park. Many observers considered that to be too lenient for such a dangerous tackle, particularly as it came 10 days after a similar challenge on Everton’s Idrissa Gueye — but the FA cannot increase the punishment for offences that have been seen and dealt with by the match officials.

Ibrahimovic’s apparent elbow to the face of Yohan Cabaye, however, could have been sanctioned by the FA, as it was not seen at the time. As is standard in these cases, footage of the second-half incident was sent to three former elite referees who reviewed it independently of each other.