Arsène Wenger defends Gervinho after his sending off at Newcastle

It was no eight-goal thriller but Arsenal's visit to Newcastle still ended as contentiously as last season's game, with Joey Barton as the agent provocateur when the visitors had a player dismissed in the second half.

Last season it was Abou Diaby, this time it was Gervinho, making his English league debut. Alan Pardew insisted he dived, Arsène Wenger claimed he did not, but the salient point was that after Barton had hauled him brusquely to his feet and told him to get on with the game the Ivorian became involved in a scuffle and clearly slapped the Newcastle man.

"I think I saw more than the referee did," Wenger said, making an unusual case for the defence. "It was just an argument, the referee could have produced two yellow cards or two red ones. I don't think Gervinho deserved to be sent off and certainly Barton was not hit hard enough to lie down for two minutes in the way he did. I will have to have a good look at it again before we decide whether to appeal."

That much is true, though the letter of the law is that raising one's hands constitutes violent conduct, so Gervinho will now be looking at a three-match ban, unless Arsenal manage to successfully appeal. Pardew advised them not to bother.

"First of all Gervinho dived, there's no question about that," the Newcastle manager said. "Joey's reaction was to chastise him, which you can understand, and then there was a tussle and Gervinho slapped him. You can't do that. I'm not going to defend Joey to the hilt, I've had my run-ins with him too, but on this occasion he was calm. He was just incensed at an opponent attempting to con the referee and I don't think that makes him a villain. He's just an opinionated boy, that's all."

Even Wenger could not disagree with that assessment. Showing remarkable good humour in the circumstances, the Arsenal manager noted that Barton was the obvious link between the two dismissals in the last two games and claimed he had "got away with it" on both occasions.

When it was put to Wenger that Arsenal had been linked with Barton in transfer speculation over the summer, he smiled and did not rule out the possibility. "That may be the solution to sort out our problem," he said. "We do not seek to provoke opponents though, we try to play football. I am concerned that maybe sometimes our players overreact to provocation and that is an area where we must try to improve."

Wenger was somewhat less relaxed about the visiting Arsenal supporters telling him in no uncertain terms to spend some money as his players ran out of ideas in the second half. Clearly frustrated by the apparently inevitable departures of Cesc Fábregas and Samir Nasri, and the lack of replacements being lined up, the Arsenal fans high up in the Leazes End twice chanted that Wenger needed to get his chequebook out.

Source: Paul Wilson, The Guardian on 13 Aug 11