Felt it was a bit harsh on Gervinho.. although he did seem to slap Barton around the head, it was more of a flailing hand under some severe provacation from Barton - who had literally dragged him to his feet by his shirt. For Barton to drop to the floor, he was clearly trying to get Gervinho sent off - obviously successfully. Then again, is anyone surprised? This is what Barton does. Welcome to the Premier League, Gervinho.
It was all pretty ugly though. Barton is what he is and nobody should be surprised. In fairness to Gervinho, the whole incident was started by Barton's reaction.
Barton should have walked simple as, so should Gervinho and so should Song. Not a glorious return for the Premier League.
What Barton did was wrong, but after what Alex Song done to him he was always going to try and get his own back, and he did exactly that by getting Gervinho sent off.
Little bit of a ruck in the last 10 mins... Gervinho was turning inside the Newcastle box, and went down appealing for a pen. Barton, who was nearby but not involved, ran up to Gervinho who was lying on the floor and started screaming at him - and grabbed him by his shirt and virtually pulled Gervinho to his feet. Everyone started piling in and intervening in some kind of big group hug. Gervinho stretched out a hand and just about brushed Barton with an open palm, cue Barton falling to the ground clutching his head.
Barton is unquestionably a moronic little twunt but in this case i do feel that had the ref spotted the blatant, malicious, stamp by Song on Barton earlier then Barton would not have been quite so under the red mist. I'm not defending his actions, but bad refereeing led to it.
Gervinho deserved to go - you cannot strike someone, no matter what the provocation.