Monday Night Football and Watford/Liverpool featured something as profoundly unlikely as it was spectacular: Alan Pardew's double-breasted jacket. (Oh, and Emre Can scored a decent goal, too).
Pards was the guest pundit alongside Jamie Carragher and he was really very good, but as often happens on the show, they decided to trawl through the archives to dig up an awkward encounter between Carragher and the visiting analyst.
With Pardew, this wasn't particularly difficult, as the former Palace manager publicly called out Carragher over his comments on what Pards believed to be a dive by Christan Benteke to win Liverpool a last-minute winning penalty in a league game at Selhurst Park last season. Pards really was remarkably aggrieved over Benteke's tumble over Damien Delaney's (barely visible) trailing leg.
He dedicated his programme notes a fortnight later to complaining about the incident and found fault with Jamie Carragher's assertion that Benteke was "right to go down" to win the penalty for his team.
What annoyed me most were Jamie Carragher's strong comments after the game stating that Christian Benteke was right to go down to win the penalty.I couldn't disagree more with those sentiments and it is a shame so many former and current players share his opinion that diving is a valid tactic.
Would Carragher have had the same opinion if Wilf 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.
These words proved an echo of those made by Pardew in a press conference a few days after the game, and MNF dug them up. In fairness, Pardew stood his ground, and dealt ith it alll exceptionally well.
Watch it below.
