To no one’s surprise, managers are becoming disrespectful to the FA’s Respect campaign. Their line is familiar: “Referees must earn our respect” by getting decisions right. Except, clearly, the point of the exercise is to refrain from attacking referees when they make perceived mistakes. Managers have no motivation to criticise officials whom they believe have been correct. It is like saying: “I’m happy to suffer fools gladly, providing they stop behaving like fools.” But are referees and their assistants fools, in any case? True, this weekend provided the usual offside mistakes – Nicolas Anelka’s first goal for Chelsea was wrongly awarded and Antonio Valencia’s effort for Wigan Athletic was incorrectly chalked off.

Yet, even those with technology frequently err. At the Middlesbrough-West Ham United game, an assistant television commentator, watching a slow-motion replay of Lucas Neill’s pass to Craig Bellamy, said sarcastically: “You see there, as the ball’s chipped forward, he’s only three or four yards offside.” He was actually onside.

Consider the ridicule suffered by the assistant who awarded Reading’s ghost goal against Watford in September. A fortnight later, when Frank Lampard, playing for Chelsea against Aston Villa, headed wide and the ball rebounded on to the net behind the goal, a television commentator said: “1-0 Chelsea”.

So, is the Respect campaign working? It certainly seems to be in the case of Chelsea, who received 14 bookings for dissent last season – according to figures produced by PowerTable.co.uk – but have incurred none this campaign. As for the overall figure, there has been an increase from 3.7 yellow cards for dissent per ten Barclays Premier League games last season to 4.5 this season, but the fact that referees are cautioning players more often for this crime makes interpretations difficult. The impression is that players are bad-mouthing officials far less whereas managers are criticising referees just as often.