Alan Pardew fumes at referee Lee Mason as Francis Coquelin escapes red card

Alan Pardew was angered by the performance of referee Lee Mason

ALAN PARDEW felt Arsenal should have been reduced to 10 men after the Gunners' fought hard to get their season back on track with victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

 

Two calculated fouls by Francis Coquelin could have earned the defensive midfielder his marching orders just before half-time.

As a result, Pardew made sure he had words with referee Lee Mason in the tunnel at half-time and, while he accepted that the Greater Manchester official was right, on balance, to leave Coquelin on the pitch, he was incensed when a third challenge in the second half earned nothing more than a warning - one that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger immediately took heed of, promptly substituting him for the remainder of the game.

"I had a chat with Lee in the tunnel and we agreed that he shouldn't have been sent off - you don't want that," said Pardew. "I said that's his last chance, he can't afford too many other challenges, and he did one. Mason didn't make the call, though.

"Our bench thought he should have gone. Their bench did too, so taking him off was a natural reaction. He should have been sent off."

Wenger insisted it was all a case of the crowd putting pressure on the referee.

 

"He didn't deserve a yellow card but the pressure was on to get him sent off,." he said. "I had thought about it at half-time, when the pressure was already there. After the last foul I thought there was not much room now.

"Every time he intervened, the crowd were behind it and putting pressure on the referee. I didn't like to take him off after 60 minutes, but I didn't have much room."

Unsurprisingly, he preferred to focus on the positives after last week's disappointing display.

"The game I believe we have shown our strongest points and have shown different aspects of our game that are vital in the Premiership," he said. "A good flowing game in the first test, then it was a mental test when they came back to 1-1. And after last week, we managed to find a second goal.

"We had to dig in and fight in the second part and we did that. I'm pleased. We showed many different aspects that will be very important in the season."