... Sam Allardyce would not prevent his players from "making a meal" out of contact if it meant his West Ham side were given the decisions they deserved.
The Hammers boss was left irked by referee Neil Swarbrick during Sunday's 2-1 Barclays Premier League defeat to Arsenal at Upton Park after the Gunners were awarded a penalty and the hosts were denied a late spot-kick.
Winston Reid was adjudged to have felled Santi Cazorla in the box, with Swarbrick pointing to the spot as the Spaniard went to ground under the challenge, but - with West Ham chasing a stoppage-time equaliser - Morgan Amalfitano decided to stay on his feet when challenged by Kieran Gibbs.
With both Chelsea and Sunderland profiting from controversial penalty decisions against the Hammers in recent weeks, Allardyce believes going to ground when caught by the opposition may be the only way to bring a foul to the attention of the officials.
"As long as it's not simulation - as long as you get the right decision from it," he said when asked if a player needed to fall over to get a foul.
"If you're not touched and you go down because you're not touched, that's not the way forward. But if you can't get what you ordinarily should get, then you've got to consider the fact that if you make a meal of it, you make a meal of it because the contact is sufficient enough.
"The contact on Amalfitano was sufficient enough to put him off getting the ball cleanly in that position to try to help us score a goal. It impeded him from getting a better contact on the ball.
"Like I said, that's where a penalty should be given and if that's the case then it would be much better across the board.
"As difficult as it is for referees, those are the decisions that they should be capable of giving. All the other infringements are here and there, if you like, but then when it comes to major decisions, it's how the goal is judged and how the referee is judged.
"A very good game from a referee can't evolve being 99 per cent great and then the one per cent being one major decision he's got wrong, because then he's had a bad game - like a goalkeeper can be brilliant and then all of a sudden he drops one ball and it gets put in the net and he's had it.
"Unfortunately the referees are not brave enough to give those penalties because, in the surroundings and the atmosphere in the stadiums, it doesn't look like one, but their job is to identify if it is or not."