Premier League: Pardew left furious with Arsenal over poor timing
MANCHESTER CITY 4 vs NEWCASTLE UNITED 0
NEWCASTLE manager Alan Pardew slammed Arsenal for the timing of their £11m bid for midfielder Yohan Cabaye, which he believed had a devastating effect on their performance at the Etihad Stadium last night.
The France midfielder missed the defeat to Manchester City with news of the Gunners’ offer yesterday proving too much of a distraction for him to focus on playing.
Goals from David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri, plus a red card on the stroke of half-time for defender Steven Taylor, made it a night to forget for Newcastle.
However, Pardew believes the outcome would have been different had Arsenal waited until after the match to make their move for Cabaye.
“We have prepared with the lad for three days and to have his head turned by the bid from Arsenal before a game is disrespectful,” said Pardew. “Why they couldn’t do us the respect and honour of waiting until the morning I don’t know.
“I don’t think the result would have been the same if he had played.”
Manuel Pellegrini, meanwhile, was delighted at the ruthlessness of his team’s performance in his first match in charge.
“The most important thing was the way my team played for 90 minutes,” he said. “When we were winning we kept trying to play football. We scored four goals and had at least six or seven others chances. And we didn’t concede any goals, so the important thing was the way my team played for 90 minutes. It was a good start and we must continue the same way.”
City moved in front on six minutes when Edin Dzeko’s low fizzing cross was deflected off defender Taylor up to Silva to head in from 10 yards.
Midway through the first half Dzeko’s flick split the Newcastle defence and Aguero fired low across goal and into the bottom corner.
In first-half stoppage time Newcastle’s task was made all the more difficult when Taylor was shown a straight red card by referee Andre Marriner after hitting the back of Aguero’s head with his forearm.
Five minutes after the restart Toure curled in a free-kick from the edge of the box and Nasri completed the scoring when he got to a loose ball ahead of defender Mathieu Debuchy and slotted in a low drive from 16 yards.