Pardew slams ´under pressure´ Villas-Boas

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has hinted that Chelsea contemporary Andre Villas-Boas is not coping with the pressures of the Premier League.

Villas-Boas accused Pardew of making a ‘big scandal’ over referee Mike Dean’s decision not to send David Luiz off in Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Newcastle at St James’ Park earlier this month, a decision which Pardew publicly criticised.

And Pardew has responded to the Portuguese manager’s criticism, saying Villas-Boas’ remarks were unnecessary and disrespectful.

“The guy (Villas-Boas) is new to our country, he’s new to our press and I think he’s under a bit of pressure. I think maybe he could throw a little bit more respect at it,” Pardew said.

“I think it would be more honourable of him if he’d accepted that Luiz should have got sent off, like the referee did.”

“Sometimes when you’ve had a defeat you have to find certain reasons why you’ve had that defeat and you voice those concerns. But when you have a victory it’s nice to be a bit more respectful and bit more honourable in saying: ‘Well, OK, we won the game but decisions went our way’.”

Pardew reiterated his stance that the decision not to show a straight red card to Luiz, who impeded Demba Ba when the striker was through on goal, may have indirectly influenced Steven Taylor’s Achilles injury during the match.

“When I looked at the stats of my players – Steven Taylor put more work rate and effort into that game than any game he’s played this season,” Pardew said.

“Did that maybe factor in the fact he got an injury to his Achilles? Maybe it did. If they had 10 men he might not need to work so hard. That was my only point.”

“I’m not saying that the guy (Luiz) didn’t get sent off and it related to his injury. But I’m saying because we were forcing and pressurising the game there was a factor of that and it’s foolish to ignore to that.”