4-4 fallout – Pardew speaks, Barton blamed and Interpol deny interest
Posted on February 7th, 2011 | 187 Comments |
The remarkable 4-4 draw on Saturday certainly caused a stir with some Arsenal supporters, even to the point of them blaming Joey Barton for all the ills of our society. I’m surprised the Gooners haven’t blamed him for the Afghanistan war, the troubles in Egypt and possibly even the flood that had animals two-by-twoing into Noah’s Ark. I hear one disgruntled supporter has demanded an inspection of Joey Barton’s head to see if there’s a 666 on it anywhere.
There was also a brief rumour that Interpol were investigating the game on some sort of match-fixing charge but that has since been proved unfounded. Inspector Clouseau of Interpol said:
“Interpol is not aware of any request for assistance and any investigation would be conducted by national authorities. Interpol’s general secretariat has not been asked to provide any assistance in relation to this matter.”
Anyway, Alan Pardew has had some more to say about the game. After the first half, he took some stick from a particularly vociferous fan behind him, about which he said:
“I was aware of him. That ain’t the first time it has happened.
“I have had it several times.
“I have had it at West Ham, Southampton, Charlton and Reading.
“You get days when it does not look right.
“It did not look right and if I was a fan I would be questioning the manager about the preparation of that team.”
Pardew then goes on to explain that he didn’t think things were right at the outset:
“The truth is I even felt before the game that it did not feel right. I could sense something was wrong.
“We were genuinely feeling sorry for ourselves.
“There was a hangover from the events of this week and to some degree, some of the players, maybe they were asking, ‘is it all about Andy Carroll?’
“Well it isn’t. It is about Newcastle and they showed that.
“I am not saying to you anything different than what I mentioned at half-time.
“It was not how to approach a Premier League game. You have to pressure people, tackle people, turn people around, force them into errors. You can force any team into errors.
“Part of my message was that you cannot sulk in front of 52,000 people at St James’ Park.
“They were letting themselves down more than anyone else.
“They showed to their family and friends that they are better than that.
“It has been a tough week to be a football manager here – a tough and the toughest I have had, as you can imagine – but at the end of it I am elated. It is just a weird feeling.”
Fair play to Pardew for instigating the turnaround at half time after borrowing Sir Alex Ferguson’s hairdrier. It should do wonders for the confidence of the team and will certainly help to put any bad feeling about the Andy Carroll sale behind them.
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
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