Yaya Toure: Man City suffered due to poor refereeing in Arsenal loss

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure was critical of the standard of officiating in their 2-1 FA Cup semi-final loss to Arsenal.

The Ivorian claimed it would be better to play without referees in their crucial derby clash with Manchester United on Thursday.

Referee Craig Pawson had clearly irked Toure with his decisions during the game, which included City having a perfectly good goal disallowed in the first-hald.

Sergio Aguero thought he had scored but the effort was chalked off because Leroy Sane's cross was ruled to have drifted out of play before reaching the Argentinian.

Replays indicated the decision was wrong while Aguero, who did later give City the lead, also thought he should have had a penalty early in the game.

Toure said: "I think the referees have to stop this. I am very disappointed. It is not the first time, there have been a couple of times.

"If we have to talk about referees, people are going to say 'we complain' but when we see the highlights, for me it is very disappointing.

"Maybe on Thursday we are going to have a better referee or maybe play without a referee - I'd prefer that."

Asked if he thought the ball had stayed in play, Toure said: "Definitely, and it was a penalty and something more.

"But what can we do? If (we) talk about the referee the FA is going to come in for the punishment if we think like that, but I think I need to sleep and rest and forget this game."