Whammy

No manager likes to see his side hammered, particularly when he’s trying to make an impression and they are battling to avoid relegation, and no manager likes to see his players sent off – so perhaps it’s understandable that in the immediate aftermath of the game he finds it difficult to be entirely rational about events or gracious in defeat.

Commenting on Sankofa’s dismissal at the Emirates, Alan Pardew apparently said: “The decision was a triple whammy. One, he should have been given offside, two yards offside by the way. Secondly, he didn’t pull him back too hard and the player went down quite dramatically and then Osei getting sent off as well, that was a big blow for the team.”

Let’s take these one at a time. First, it’s disappointing to discover that a top manager has evidently not managed to acquaint himself with recent instructions to officials regarding the offside law. Secondly, the suggestion that he “didn’t pull him back too hard” contains an admission of guilt and begs the question, how hard do you have to pull an attacker back to justify the award of a penalty and the sanction of a red card? Thirdly, what exactly is meant by “quite dramatically”? And fourthly, if Sankofa did pull Robin Van Persie back and he was deemed to be the last defender, the referee has no alternative but to send him off.

There are a couple of other points worth mentioning. While Sankofa’s departure was, as Pardew said, “a big blow for the team”, Charlton could have already been 3-0 down at that point and in the rest of the game they were fortunate that the score did not run into double figures, such was Arsenal’s domination – though in the heat of the moment the Charlton manager could not bring himself to acknowledge the quality of his opponents. And later in the game only the benevolence of Mike Riley allowed Amdy Faye to stay on the field for two offences that would have amounted to a red.

The good news for Charlton, Pardew and their survival hopes is that during the remainder of the season they are unlikely to encounter a side playing as well as Arsenal did very often.