Paul Parker: Racism isn't just a problem for big-name players like Paul Pogba

Racism has never disappeared, it’s just been out of sight of anyone who’s forgotten that football had a life before 1992 and goes on outside the Premier League. It’s never gone away, it’s always been there. Speak to anyone who ever watches games outside the Premier League and they know it still happens. What happened to Paul Pogba will always happen as long as someone has somewhere to air an opinion and they can behind it. It’s not going to disappear.

Can you stop it publicly on Twitter and social media? There are trigger words that stop children from getting into certain sites and I’m sure Twitter and Facebook can do the same. It isn’t rocket science. But the problem is, it’s not just going to disappear by shouting about it every time something happens to a big-name player. We should do something about it for every person of every race, every ethnic origin, every religion so life can be easier for everybody. If that’s possible, over decades it will die out. Is it going to disappear? Not in my lifetime.

But when we talk about this we need to address football in general, not just the elite game. In the elite game, it’s often one man shouting; when I was playing, when John Barnes was playing, when Ian Wright was playing, it was a whole terrace. It’s a football thing, not a Paul Pogba thing or a Premier League thing. In the lower leagues, the stewards are local. They’re there as supporters to earn £30-£50 a day. The problem is that when people in their local pubs or friends and family start doing things are they going to try and sort out racist abuse? No they’re not.

Pogba has taken penalties previously, maybe the highlight of his game was that run into the box and he felt it was upon himself to take that penalty against Wolves. Marcus Rashford, as a Mancunian, a Manchester United fan and someone with respect for Pogba, turned around and said, ‘okay’. Pogba misses the penalty, fails to score and gets ridiculed for it. If he scores the goal, and Manchester United win the game 2-1, Pogba’s a hero. But that’s the situation Pogba’s in - he’s damned if does and damned if he doesn’t.

Maybe Rashford didn’t want to make a big scene because of his respect for Manchester United like last season with Fulham where Kamara had a big bust up with Mitrovic. Did he tell Pogba that he wanted to take it? No he didn’t. If he had, maybe Pogba would have listened to him. Ole Solskjaer can only do so much before a game and at half-time, then have a word after. If Pogba had scored that goal, nobody would be concerned about what Solskjaer had to say about it - the ball would be in the back of the net and Manchester United would win that game.

Chelsea’s biggest problem will be scoring goals this season. Defensively, you worry about them. They’ve always been fragile. Last season they kept the ball for long periods but now they don’t have Eden Hazard and they don’t have a decent centre forward. Tammy Abraham is unproven. Giroud will always get the odd goal but it seems like he struggles in the Premier League. It’s a worry for Chelsea. Frank is still a novice and he’s got one hell of a job on his hands to get that team in the Champions League.

Meanwhile, United have taken four points from six and it was an improvement on their previous performances against Wolverhampton. Against Chelsea the 4-0 scoreline flattered them because Chelsea were in that game until those two quick goals. But they lack creativity and don’t look like a side that will go out and dominate teams.

This is a Liverpool win. As much as Arsenal have won their won their first two games in god knows how many years, I can’t believe that an Arsenal with a shaky defence can go to Anfield and win. They’re in better form, the way they’ve started and their front line can score goals but if you look at their defence, they’ve not got enough about them at this moment in time to go to Anfield and win a match.