While sat in front of Sky Sports' Super Sunday yesterday afternoon, Marco Silva was keeping a closer eye than usual over the Merseyside and Manchester derbies with a sense of injustice over Marvin Zeegelaar's red card at Burnley a day earlier still fresh in the memory.

There were no red cards in the games between the four rivals, only some questionable defending on all sides, but Silva felt the tackling in the two games was no better than had been seen by his Watford side on Saturday.

It's left the Portuguese feeling Lee Probert, the man in the middle at Turf Moor, had made an "example" of the Hornets - and whether you agree with him or not, he wants it to stop ahead of tomorrow's trip to Crystal Palace.

"I saw two matches in the afternoon yesterday, the Liverpool and Manchester derbies.

"I saw more than one incident like Zeegelaar, and it was a yellow card every time. It needs to be equal for everyone, not make an example of one team.

"The Premier League is a tough league, don’t make the example out of Watford. In the big matches, the big derbies, it’s a tough game and a big game, you need to equal it with the others.

"Our game was two teams competing really hard but respecting each other. It was a fair game.

"The referee had a big influence and for me, it’s not fair. We’re appealing because we don’t feel it is fair."

Watford have appealed the red card given to Zeegelaar and expect to receive a decision over whether it will be rescinded by the end of the day.

On the surface, a high foot from the left-back doesn't appear sufficient to get it overturned, even though it has divided fans and pundits alike.

But Silva has set his stall firmly in one camp as to how he feels the incident should have unfolded.

He said: "I don’t have doubts about the red card. It was very harsh, I can’t say more. It’s better I just say it with these two words, for me it had a big influence on the match.

"At that moment the team were playing well, but the weather wasn’t good as well but we were there to get a good result and compete. That moment had a big influence on the result."