Respect to Mikel/Referee Accountability

Apparently, the late-match and post-match unpleasantness partially owes to the fact that Mikel had the temerity to repeatedly question Clattenburg's decisions during the game. If so, you have to admire that Mikel is so passionate about the club and the results of the games. Mikel splits the fans' opinions, but I'm sure that his attitude as of late is winning some people over.

It should be pointed out that that (unless you're SAF) there's no mechanism in place to question referees' decisions, and to hold them accountable for blatantly incorrect calls. If a manager or player questions a ref in an interview, they usually receive a large fine; sometimes, if the criticism is mild enough, managers or players get away with it, but such criticism has no effect. Consequently, if the details of the story are accurate, Mikel did all he really could do, which was to question the ref in person.