UK Edition
Mohamed Salah is one of the best players in the Premier League - a wonderfully gifted goalscorer whose efforts could well end up ending his club's long wait for a title.
But there is a less savoury side to his football which is in danger of spoiling his reputation - the tendency to collapse to the ground at the slightest of contact in the penalty area.
There have been some close calls in recent weeks, with Salah earning penalties against Newcastle and Brighton, but against Crystal Palace on Saturday there was simply no doubt that he dived after Mamadou Sakho flicked out a leg in the box. Regardless of whether there was a tiny bit of contact, one of the factors in determining an act of simulation is the exaggeration used in the reaction, and nobody would dispute that Salah's fall - and the delay which preceded it - was out of proportion to whatever contact there might have been.
He should have been booked for simulation, and I'm disappointed the referee, Jon Moss, failed to take action.
One of the important tasks a referee manager has is to raise the awareness of this type of offence.
This is done at the meetings of referees where video clips are carefully analysed and ways of improving detection and punishment determined. It is hard to believe that Salah's habit of tumbling over would not have come up at these meetings, given the frequency with which it has been happening.
One of the aspects of Moss's performance on Saturday which disappointed me most was that he made no attempt to improve the viewing angle, and get a better sight of Salah once he had received the ball.
I am not encouraging referees to guess, and it is also important that players are not pre-judged in situations simply because they may have done wrong in the past. But at the moment referees are letting themselves down by not sanctioning a player who is building a reputation as a diver.
- Keith Hackett is a former referee and his ebook, You are the Ref, is out now
Mo Salah is getting a reputation as a diver - referees need to get tough