“He is too honest. He wants to be proper in these sorts of games. If the lad’s like that, you can’t tell him he’s wrong if that’s what he tries to do. When you see it, he can’t miss from there. He was so close but Walker pushes him in the back.”

City’s frustration at Marriner’s oversight overlooked the official’s failure to spot that Leroy Sané could have been penalised for handball moments before the winger scored his team’s opening goal. Pep Guardiola’s exasperation at what he feels are clear-cut decisions going against his side had culminated in a private meeting in the past fortnight with Mike Riley, the head of the referees’ governing body.

The City manager had been particularly aggrieved by Fernandinho’s red card in the 2-1 win against Burnley and the failure to spot a perceived foul on goalkeeper Claudio Bravo in the lead up to Burnley scoring. Yet that was not enough to prevent the Catalan calling on Saturday for more face-to-face talks with Riley and the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd. If it was any consolation to Guardiola, he is unlikely to get much objection internally at the PGMOL that Marriner got the Sterling decision wrong and, contrary to some suggestions, there had been nothing wrong with the communications equipment between officials at the Etihad. Touré believes video technology has to be introduced.