THE last time a player manhandled a Premiership referee, Harry Redknapp was the man to benefit.

Back in September 1998, the infamous Paolo Di Canio pushed Paul Alcock to the floor in a top flight game when he was playing for Sheffield Wednesday .

By sheer coincidence, Arsenal were the opposition at Hillsborough that day and Di Canio was subsequently fined by the FA - and handed a 12-match ban.

He never played for Wednesday again, but by the end of January he was back in the Premiership with West Ham where he proved to be arguably Redknapp's best ever signing.

Redknapp raised more than a few eye brows when he brought Di Canio to Upton Park for £1.7m in January 1999.

The Italian became a cult figure in East London and scored some goals that bore comparison with those that Matthew Le Tissier scored for Saints a few years earlier.

It was a Redknapp gamble that paid off but now, six and a half years after Di Canio's last act in a Wednesday shirt, the Saints boss faces a relegation battle without a player that had shown his best form in a red and white shirt under the man-management of Harry and Jim.

Redknapp warned Prutton that he was a sending off waiting to happen after the 2-1 defeat at Birmingham four weeks ago. Incidentally, the 2-1 at St Andrews last season was the sene of Prutton's other Premiership red card.

But Redknapp kept faith with the 23-year-old, whose good form had been overshadowed by a glaring miss at West Brom before he let his frustration get the better of him against the champions.

Redknapp will feel he has been let down badly.

Like a speeding driver who already has nine points to his name, Prutton acted recklessly in winning himself the sixth red card of his career - but it was his actions after receiving the red card that will be most damaging in the long term.

Although Robin Van Persie restored parity, Arsenal made sure the damage had been done by capitalising on the numerical advantage they had for all of seven minutes.

And at least Van Persie acknowledged the fact that he had been a stupid boy without the need to make a bigger ass of himself and assault the match official.

There is only one precedent for what Prutton did because it is such a serious offence but he should be grateful that Alan Wiley did not go in for the theatrics adopted by Alcock at Hillsborough in 1998.

Wiley had the decency to stay on his feet despite the best efforts of Prutton, whose actions were, in many ways, worse than those of Di Canio.

The Italian's Latin temperament acted as an admittedly flimsy defence but at least Di Canio did not need Danny Wilson, Sheffield Wednesday's manager at the time, to pull him away.

The sight of Harry Redknapp grabbing Prutton and dragging him from even more trouble was as unsavoury as it gets.

And you had to rub your eyes in disbelief when coach Dennis Rofe and physio Jim Joyce frogmarched Prutton down the players' tunnel Di Canio's 12-match ban included the automatic three-match suspension for receiving a straight red card.

But although Prutton's sending off was for a second booking, which would usually constitute a one-match ban at Brentford tomorrow night, he will be lucky to play in any of the ten Premiership games that remain for Saints this season.

It will be interesting to see where Saints go from here. Since scoring in the win against Liverpool a month ago, Prutton has added dynamisim to the right side of the Southampton midfield - along with three bookings in four games and his second red card in 13 months.

Now the likelihood is that Rory Delap will be pushed forward to the right flank at Brentford tomorrow night, with Paul Telfer the favourite to return to right back.