Hatem Ben Arfa should be proud of his performance, says Alan Pardew – EPL News
Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew, has hailed the performance of the Magpies attacker, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Hatem-Ben-Arfa-c15884, in the recent 3-1 defeat to Manchester City at Etihad Stadium.
The Tyneside club experienced their first loss of the ongoing 2011/12 Barclays Premier League against the current leaders.
Newcastle United, who were unbeaten in their first 11 league matches, failed to match the quality of the Citizens and Roberto Mancini’s men made them suffer.
Pardew was disappointed with his side’s performance at the Etihad Stadium, but the English boss was delighted with the efforts put in by Ben Arfa.
The Frenchman recently returned from a horrendous injury which he suffered in the same fixture last season. Ben Arfa suffered a career threatening double leg fracture from Nigel De Jong’s sliding tackle last season when Newcastle United visited Manchester
City.
It took Frenchman more than a year to make completely recover from the broken-leg. The 24-year-old started his first match against Manchester City since returning from the injury and Pardew was delighted with the attacker’s performance.
The Magpies’ boss believes that Ben Arfa matched the quality of Manchester City players and has stated that he was very impressed by Frenchman’s creativity in the final third.
Pardew stated:
“I thought that some of the ideas that the Manchester City players present you with and their flair makes it very difficult for your defenders and Hatem was at that level today.”
The Frenchman created a chance for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Demba-Ba-c10812 in the first half when the score was level, however, the Senegalese attacker failed to find the back of the net.
Pardew believes that Ben Arfa should be proud of his performance and added, “I thought he created one or two things, burst away from players and kept hold of possession and to think it was only a year ago that he had that really terrible injury, you have
to say it was a really grand performance by him and he should be proud of that.”
The attacker has featured in seven matches for Newcastle United in all competitions this season.
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