IT ZLATAN Ibrahimovic’s boot had landed on Tyrone Mings’s head last Saturday one suspects the Swede would have been banned for three matches, at worst.

Equally, if the offender had been one of Harry Kane, Kevin De Bruyne, Philippe Coutinho or Diego Costa, the punishment would have fitted the perceived ‘crime’.

Mings, however – regardless of the fact it is impossible to prove any intent in the act – is condemned to missing five matches for connecting with Ibrahimovic’s head as he tried to hurdle the Manchester United striker.

Ibrahimovic will sit out two fewer games for stationing himself next to Mings, sizing him up and belting the defender with his elbow.

Make no mistake, Cherries have been stiffed here.

The FA, spying a vulnerable little guy, sensed an opportunity to chuck their weight around and try to persuade us they remain relevant in an English game where the Premier League hold all the aces.

Had they been dealing with a player from one of the powerhouse clubs, be certain that the governing body’s appetite for conflict would not have been quite so voracious.

If this reads as rabble-rousing, then you need only assess the evidence to appreciate that Cherries – and Mings – are entitled to be nursing an enormous sense of grievance.

Chelsea striker Costa stamped on Liverpool’s Emre Can during a League Cup semi-final tie in January 2015. The Spaniard was subsequently charged with violent conduct – which he denied – and hit with a three-match ban.

Back in December, Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero committed an appalling knee-high challenge on Chelsea's David Luiz.

Aguero was red carded and suspended for four games. The extra match was only imposed because of his dismissal earlier in the campaign for flinging an elbow at West Ham captain Winston Reid – an indiscretion that saw the Argentine banned for three matches.

And that’s where we are with elbowing offences.

While a snide transgression such as spitting – which carries a six-match ban – is typically considered the most abhorrent deed a footballer can perpetrate, that indiscretion pales against the seriousness of deliberately and forcefully planting an elbow into an opponent’s head.

Being spat at is disgusting. Get clobbered by an elbow, though, and the effects can be life-changing.

Just ask Iain Hume. The former Barnsley striker still sports an angry cranial scar to remind him of the day his skull was fractured by Chris Morgan in 2008.

Morgan was booked, leaving the same FA that has just conferred its draconian punishment on Mings to sit by impotently and allow the Sheffield United centre-half to continue with his career unchecked.

Former Tottenham defender Gary Mabbutt, meanwhile, will never be rid of the metal plates that were inserted in his face to piece back together the eye socket and cheekbone shattered by John Fashanu in 1993.

Fashanu received no sanction for his violent swing of the elbow, which also left Mabbutt with a fractured skull.

One imagines Hume and Mabbutt nodded knowingly as the FA passed down their respective verdicts on Ibrahimovic and Mings this week.

The blow this punitive suspension represents to Mings, so soon after his return from a serious knee injury, should not be underestimated.

By dint of his perseverance, strength of personality and raw talent, the 23-year-old was just starting to establish himself in Cherries' side.

Against United we saw the player Eddie Howe always believed he had on his hands.

Combative, athletic and assured, Mings visibly relished the chance to pit his wits against Ibrahimovic.

Just as he would have been starting to feel like a footballer again, the rug has been pulled from beneath him.

Cherries, though, must use their defender’s punishment as a galvanising force.

Howe's side made a mockery of most pundits’ predictions by claiming a draw at Old Trafford last week – just as they confounded the doomsayers who wrote them off last season following the injuries suffered by Mings, Callum Wilson and Max Gradel.

Mark Molesley told the Echo this week of his admiration for the way Baily Cargill “stood up” to Manchester United, when the defender replaced Mings for the final 12 minutes of the 1-1 draw seven days ago.

That the Cherries under-21 boss’s words could have applied to the entire team offers huge encouragement for the remainder of this campaign.

Howe’s men did not allow themselves to be pushed around by their haughty opponents.

A whole load of them rushed to join the stramash that followed Ibrahimovic flattening Mings. As United turned the screw in the second half Cherries were prepared to break up the play any which way.

None of this is strictly in the spirit of the game. But it’s a fundamental part of fighting your corner in the merciless Premier League.

It is imperative, now, for Cherries to apply the same uncompromising approach to their football from here on in.

After all, if you don’t stand up for yourself, nobody will do it for you. Mings’ treatment by the FA confirmed that much.