Oleksandr Zinchenko thinks the referees need to do more to protect Bukayo Saka being targeted by opponents.

Bukayo Saka impressed with his performance against Aston Villa at the weekend, appearing in the BBC’s Team of the Week, and earning WhoScored’s Man of the Match award.

Yet Saturday’s game was another example of opposition players being handed the freedom to foul and manhandle Saka without punishment.

Teammate Oleksandr Zinchenko thinks Saka needs more protection from the referees.

“Bukayo is an unbelievable player, all the full-backs from the other teams, they know he’s so dangerous, so they try to provoke him, tackle him and the referees should know this,” Zinchenko said.

“We can speak about [Lionel] Messi, Cristiano [Ronaldo], Neymar, and players like this. The referees need to protect this kind of player.

“Apart from Bukayo, we have other forward players who are so dangerous and the referees need to be careful, they need to look after them of course.”

The only time a player was booked for an incident involving Saka was just before half-time, when the winger got into a fight with a few Villa players.

Philippe Coutinho was the latest to foul Saka from behind, and when Saka took issue with the challenge, he was set upon by a number of opponents, with Douglas Luiz receiving a booking.

Even then, the referee had to balance things out by also booking Saka.

Given Saka had to limp around for parts of the second half after his boot was pulled off in a raking challenge on the back of his leg, there probably should have been at least one yellow card for a foul across the 90 minutes.

Instead, the only bookings were for that argument and Emi Martinez’s time-wasting.