National media are reporting that Watford's Richarlison will be scrutinsed by the Football Association over whether he dived to win a penalty in Saturday's tea-time game with Arsenal.

The Brazilian winger certainy felt contact from Gunners defender before he went to ground in the second half of the 2-1 win, but questions have been harshly raised over how much the 20-year-old bought the resulting penalty out of referee Neil Swarbrick.

Former World Cup referee Graham Poll condemned Richarlison but others have leapt to his defence - including Mark Clattenburg, and even former Arsenal legend Ian Wright.

If the FA do investigate and he is found guilty, the in-form youngster would face a two-match ban, and become the first player in the Premier League to receive retrospective punishment for a dive under new rules.

Head coach Marco Silva has said any action would be "laughable" when asked how he would react to a ban.

He added: “I would smile because you have to see again the eight games in the Premier League, and maybe you find 10 or 20 like this one."

Richarlison is the second-most fouled player in the top flight so far this season, having been upended 26 times already.

With that firmly in mind, Silva instead believes the flying forward needs more protection.

"Before this match he was the player who suffered most fouls," he said. "If we start saying, 'he’s a player who dives every time, blah, blah, blah', I think this will not help not to protect one player who is 20 years old.

"He always plays fair. He gets into positions to win balls and like the best players in the world, he does what they would when he feels contact."