In a somewhat amusing irony, a significant number of fans of a team with Joey Barton (most carded player the Premier League so far, jointly with teammate James Perch) seem a little concerned that poor Barton was bullied at Molineux yesterday.
In all seriousness, I am concerned to hear criticisms of my team’s play for a third game in a row, but am not concerned by their actual play. I don’t want to see bad tackles, but have no problem with tough tackles, of which there were plenty yesterday from both sides. I hope to see more finesse in future, but there will always be hard fought games like yesterday’s – it is, as a Newcastle fan pointed out on my verdict post this morning, a contact sport.
Assessing the question of whether Wolves deserve the stick objectively is made impossible by the early stage of the season and yesterday’s flood of yellow cards from Stuart Atwell. Unsurprisingly, the Fair Play table shows Wolves and Newcastle propping up the table (although notably with Newcastle at the bottom).
Yesterday there was more fight than finesse but, with the referee stopping the game (unnecessarily on the whole) every 2 minutes on average, it was always unlikely to be an exhibition of silky skills. Chris Hughton didn’t seem more concerned than I am, commenting in his post match interview: “It was a very competitive game, but it’s impossible to come here and not have that kind of game.”
In all fairness, there’s every sign that Barton himself is quite tough enough to handle a physical game (and I say that entirely on the basis of his play on the pitch, not his reputation off it) and bright enough not to complain too much.
