Sam Allardyce: Yaya Toure should have been sent off - the referee didn't do his job

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Declan Warrington28 January 2017

Sam Allardyce believes Manchester City's Yaya Toure should have been sent off before his team took the lead in their 3-0 FA Cup victory at Crystal Palace.

Fine goals from Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane and Toure earned City a place in the competition's fifth round and the margin of victory their impressive performance deserved.

David Silva was particularly influential as they outclassed their relegation-threatened hosts at Selhurst Park, but Allardyce remained frustrated that referee Mike Jones did not give Toure a second yellow card for his first-half challenge on Jordon Mutch.

The foul appeared only routine, and resulted in Palace being awarded an attacking free-kick, but when asked if he felt City could have been down to 10 men, Allardyce said: "You mean should have been down to 10 men? Yeah.

"They should have been down. Mutch had been booked for much less. That was a sending off, so the referee hasn't done his job.

"On the consistency of what the referee was doing, (that) was a certain yellow card. But I've got more to worry about (with) the players, and goals we conceded, than referees at the moment.

"We've lost the habit of winning. We recovered from a sticky start, worked our way into the game, had a couple of half chances, and then conceded that soft goal just before half-time."

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