Bernardo Silva will learn on Monday if he is to become the first Premier League player to be hit with a retrospective two-match ban for diving.

The Manchester City midfielder won a penalty after going down under a challenge from Burnley keeper Nick Pope during his side’s 3-0 win at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Burnley’s players claimed Silva dived to win the spot-kick and the FA’s on-field governance team will look at the incident today, to decide whether refer to it to a three-man panel that will decide if a retrospective ban is warranted.

In such cases, there has to be ‘a clear and obvious case of simulation’ for a player to be banned, and the fact there was contact - albeit minimal - between Silva and Pope is likely to see the City midfielder let off without charge.

The incident on the half hour mark...did Silva dive? (
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2017 Getty Images)
Did Pope catch him? (
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2017 Getty Images)
Burnley players were incensed (
Image:
2017 Getty Images)

Burnley boss Sean Dyche was sceptical of the penalty decision and said of Silva: “For him to get that high off the floor with his arms above his head is almost a skill in itself. I was quite impressed with how far he travelled.

“If I kicked my kid in the garden, I don’t think he’d fall like that, so it was a moment where there has to be a bit of honour within the game where you go ‘OK, he has caught me, but it’s not enough’.”

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