Throughout his managerial career, Mark Hughes has never been shy of pointing out the apparent moral failings of opponents. The Southampton manager sat astride a particularly high horse on Sunday when he complained about Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere and his shirt-tugging foul on Jack Stephens, an assault that provoked Hughes’s man into a reaction that got him sent off.

Shaking his head like a particularly rueful headmaster, Hughes expressed himself “disappointed” that Arsenal’s Wilshere had not also been dismissed for his spirited attempt to swap shirts with his guest. You suspect Hughes may have been alone in his lofty admonition. For everyone else watching, it was a moment of high comedy, as Wilshere clung to the fabric of his rival’s shirt like a desperate victim of a ship-wreck might to a piece of floating debris. His face alone – a picture of concentrated intent – was worth the entrance fee. It was also a foul of a kind every football fan secretly admires: blatant, unabashed, about as subtle as a Motorhead revival.

And it was not just every fan enjoying it, either. There is little that stirs the juices of former professionals now working as broadcasting pundits more than taking a yellow for the team. Martin Keown, Graeme Souness, Gary Neville and the rest were purring. In truth, Wilshere managed only to marginally delay Stephens. If he really wants to know how to enhance his cynicism, he needs to study some video footage of the current master of the art.