Avram Grant was being ridiculed last week as not good enough to manage Chelsea, while referees were getting stick for not coming down harder on dissent.

Cue Grand Slam Sunday — when Chelsea virtually ended Arsenal’s title hopes and Javier Mascherano left Liverpool with 10 men at Manchester United following a quite avoidable red card, clearing the champions’ path in their quest to retaining the title.

Grant made a double substitution that changed the face of Chelsea’s match with Arsenal, who were leading 1-0, with the strategy of twin strikers producing two Drogba goals for a 2-1 victory.

As they put it at EPL Talk: “Avram Grant looks as if he’s starting to understand this whole managerial thing…”

The weekend’s biggest winners, though, were United who, five points clear of Chelsea with seven matches to go, should go on to retain the title after a 3-0 win over Liverpool.

Mascherano may not have been able to prevent United’s victory had he remained on the pitch for the full 90 minutes but Liverpool’s chances diminished with his unnecessary departure for dissent.

Worse still, the end of Liverpool’s seven-match winning streak in all competitions could have a negative effect in the race for fourth place, which includes the city derby against fifth-placed Everton at Anfield next weekend, let alone virtually ending any lingering hope of fighting for the title.

Mascherano was variously called “Mad Masch”, a Muppet and much worse. Liverpool Pies disagreed with the red card but added:

“Can we please stop blaming another Old Trafford defeat on the referee? … He was hardly responsible for a defensive shambles, a midfield that lacked as much fight as it did creativity, and a striker so isolated that he must have wondered whether he was the only one on the pitch.”

The title push is now down to the top three. Chelsea have the easiest run-in on paper but United have their five-point lead. So has the title race already been decided? Give us your thoughts on that in the comments.

PHOTO: Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates his goal against Liverpool at Old Trafford, March 23, 2008. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Javier Mascherano is in a long tradition of strong-charactered Argentine central midfielders going back to Antonio Rattin, and further.

Sadly, his petulance at Old Trafford in Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat by Manchester United on Sunday recalls Rattin’s dismissal against England in the 1966 World Cup quarter-final at Wembley.

Both dismissals were for dissent rather than foul play, although Mascherano had already been booked and so might not have been shown the red card if he had not seen an earlier yellow for a late tackle.

Rattin’s sending-off was the incident that sparked the introduction of yellow and red cards.

He was sent off for repeatedly protesting to referee Rudolf Kreitlein over the German’s decisions for team mates’ misdemeanours, not unlike what happened to Mascherano.

Rattin was not seen in England again and it was, in fact, the only sending-off in the career of an influential and clean player.

Mascherano now risks being a marked man in the eyes of English referees and will need to be doubly careful about his behaviour if he is not to leave Liverpool a man short again.

As a player, he most closely resembles Americo Gallego, the thicker-built number 5 in Argentina’s 1978 World Cup-winning side, absorbing attacks and distributing play.

Sergio Batista, the tall, bearded incumbent in the 1986 World Cup team, was more like Rattin in his quiet, middle-of-the-park dominance, providing the steady holding role and launchpad for the actions of Diego Maradona and his fellow forwards.

Fernando Redondo was the elegant linchpin of the 1993 Copa America-winning side and 1994 World Cup team, a player not out of place making skilled incursions up front.

They all descend from a centre half tradition embodied by Nestor Rossi, a member of the great Argentina side that won the Copa America in 1957 but was badly weakened for the World Cup in Sweden the following year by the loss to Italy’s Serie A of a gifted inside-forward trio that included Omar Sivori, later a European Footballer of the Year.

PHOTO: Javier Mascherano is sent off by referee Steve Bennett during Liverpool’s Premier League defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford, March 23, 2008. REUTERS/Phil Noble