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Feeling the pressure? – Pardew has a pop at Leicester and Carragher in bitter programme notes

As glad as we have been to see The Eagles flying up the league with superb attacking football, especially with them sporting a classic Crystal Palace shirt. Watching Alan Pardew look back on his handy work with the smugness of a teenager admiring his own farts was becoming increasingly nauseating.

What with his sides struggling for a win in 2016, the Pards has been tasked, as with customary for many of his sides, with arresting a rather worrying slump. And boy, does he not have a good record of that.

If his increasingly tetchy post match press conferences do testify enough, when when Alan gets passive aggressive, you know shit is about to hit the fan.

As spotted by Guardian journo Sachin Nakrani, Just check out these programme notes prior to his sides 1-0 defeat to Leicester….

Unlike Leicester we have been unfortunate to lose key players for long periods. Today’s opponents have been awarded 10 penalties this season, which is double the total of any other team.

A bitter swipe on the levels of Partridge no doubt, it’s probably worth mentioning that he and Ranieri shared some tension after the Italian refused to shake his hand following their previous meeting.

He then takes aim at Carra and his support of Benteke going down under a challenge against Palace a few weeks ago…

What annoyed me most were Jamie Carragher’s strong comments after the game stating that Christian Benteke was right to go down and win the penalty. I couldn’t disagree more with those sentiments and it is a shame that so many former and current players share his opinion that diving is a valid tactic.

Would Carragher have had the same opinion if Wilf (Wilfried Zaha) had gone down in the box in the 94th minute of a massive game at Anfield? I suspect not, but loyalties can blur opinions at times.

Here’s the full piece.


Not surprisingly Carragher bites back.